Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.

(British, 1887-1976) The Old Quay, Maryport (1956)

The Old Quay, Maryport (1956)

Footnotes

Provenance
Lady Catherine Walston (1916-1978), by whom gifted to
Doris Young (Private Secretary to the above), by whom bequeathed to
Penelope Cook (née Mayall), thence by family descent
Private Collection, U.K.

Executed in 1956 The Old Quay, Maryport depicts the 19th century Christ Church which sits quayside in the Cumbrian coastal town of Maryport. Lowry visited Cumbria on numerous occasions, often staying with his friend the collector Geoffrey Bennett. Bennett was ordinated into the Anglican Church in 1962, following which Lowry would address him as the 'Reverend Gentleman', and when the artist died in 1976 Bennett conducted Lowry's funeral service. Whilst the present work pre-dates Bennett's ordination, it is arguable that the high proportion of ecclesiastical subjects among Lowry's Cumbrian work, such as Church, Wath Brow, Cleator Moor (1948), Brow Street Chapel, Maryport (1956), Rockcliffe Church, near Carlisle (1963) and the present example represent some influence from Lowry's host.

Whilst Christ Church and the congregation assembled at its doors take the central position in the present lot, Lowry does not permit it to dominate the composition. His attention is equally given to the many figures which populate the quayside and the street receding to the right of the picture. The same treatment of the scene is applied in an oil Lowry painted in 1954 and a second drawing dating to 1959.

The original owner of this Lowry drawing, Lady Catherine Walston (1916-1978), was the subject of a book published by Carroll & Graf in 2000 titled, The Third Woman: The Secret Passion That Inspired "The End Of The Affair" . From 1946 the American born Lady Walston was the mistress of the author Graham Greene, whose 1951 novel (dedicated to 'C' in the British edition and 'Catherine' in the American one) about a novelist who becomes obsessed with a government bureaucrat's wife (Lady Catherine was married to the millionaire Labour politician Lord Walston) is generally regarded as the author's masterpiece.