L S Lowry
Born on 1st of November 1887
Died on 23rd of February 1976
Famed for its grim use of toned-down colour and match-stick figures, the work of L.S. (Laurence Stephen) Lowry left a snapshot of North-West Britain in an era of flat caps and smoky factory chimneys. If the stylishly futuristic Salford Quays gallery and entertainment venue named after him and housing a large collection of his work is anything to go by that era is long past.
Born on November 1 1887 on Barrett Street, Stretford, Lowry decided to paint what he saw, the workers of Pendlebury where his family moved, football crowds in Bolton, mills, street scenes and other everyday snippets of northern life as it then was. Choosing such subject matter set him apart from his contemporaries, as did his style, which owed much to the impressionists, though rather incongruously his favourite artist was the pre-Raphaelite Rossetti.
Not all of Lowry’s work depicted gritty inner-city existence. He produced some of his most celebrated pieces, seascapes among them, whilst visiting one of his favourite holiday spots, Berwick-upon-Tweed. Lowry painted Berwick’s pier and the sea beyond it, the market place, its cobbled streets, and today a Lowry Trail draws visitors to the town. He also regularly visited Sunderland, staying at the Seaburn Hotel there, and in later life stayed with friends in Southampton and Cleator Moor, always painting.
Lowry worked for the same property company until his 65th birthday, though by then he was a world-renowned artist selling pictures for large sums. He was a man of simple tastes, famously polite and kind if detached, but his erotic works produced in later life hint at a hidden darker side to his character.
He died on February 23 1976, and is buried in Chorlton.
Links:
internal link The Lowry Gallery in Manchester
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1 Response to L S Lowry
From lowry lover on 7th May 2009
One of our best loved painters, after studying at Manchester college of Art, went on to produce numerous pictures of the Lancashire industrial landscape. Done in a deliberately naïve fashion, and incorporating his famous Œmatchstick people‚. The largest collection of his work is housed at The Lowry in Salford Quays.
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