
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Sold for £56,250 inc. premium
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Provenance
With Lefevre Gallery London
With Kaplan Gallery, 14 July 1979
Private Collection
Sale; Sotheby's, London, 10 December 2008, lot 38
Private Collection, U.K.
The present work relates to a large oil by the same title dated 1944,
formerly belonging to the noted collector David Carr and Shelley
Rohde notes that a sketch for the composition was executed by
Lowry on a trip to Lincoln. The scene depicts a Salvation Army
preacher at the centre flanked by a devoted choir mid verse before a
bustling crowd. As is often the case for Lowry it is the crowd which
form the true subject of the picture – less than half of the figures are
shown paying attention to the preacher. The eyes of the remainder are
straying right or left, or in several cases glare directly out of the picture
frame, their expressions mocking and humorous. The artist's long time
dealer Andras Kalman comments "Lowry never spoke to me of going
to church. This kind of scene appears to him as humorous and almost
pointless. This is Lowry in a witty, naughty mood, making fun of the
preacher and his followers." (Andras Kalman and Andrew Lambirth, LS
Lowry, Conversation Pieces, Chaucer Press, London, 2003, p.85).