Born in 1887 in Manchester, England, artist Laurence Stephen Lowry moved in 1909 with his family to Pendlebury, an area filled with factories and mills. This began his fascination with sketching and painting the workers passing by his home and nearby industrial scenes. Having had great success artistically in the latter part of his life, artist Laurence Stephen Lowry became one of Britain's most revered painters. He was appointed Official Artist for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953. Lowry's signed prints still remain highly sought after; his simple depictions of everyday working life in the industrial areas of South Lancashire evoke strong memories of the past. Lowry paintings prices can be quite staggering given the artist's popularity and prestige, some reaching as high as $100,000. If you'd like to browse emotive, figural prints for sale from other talented artists, search Invaluable online.
§ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA, RBA (1887-1976) St Luke's Church signed 'L.S. Lowry' (lower right); numbered 808/850 colour reproduction, published by G.R. Mellor Esq., 1973, and bearing his blindstamp 65 x 47.5cm
Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) Station Approach Offset lithograph printed in colours, 1962, signed in pencil, from the edition of 850, printed by Max Jaffe, Vienna, published by The Adam Collection Ltd., with the Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamp, on wove paper, with margins, image 410 x 510mm (16 1/8 x 20in) This lot is sold subject to Artists Resale Rights, details of which can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY R.A. (BRITISH 1887-1976) MOOD OF THE NORTH, 1960 signed and dated (lower right) pencil on buff exhibition catalogue cover 19.2cm x 25.5cm (7 ½in x 10in) Andras Kalman;Crane Kalman Gallery, London, where acquired by R Rickard Esq., April 1979 and thence by family descent;Private Collection, U.K. The work is drawn on Andras Kalman's copy of the exhibition catalogue for the 1957 Crane Kalman show, Mood of the North, featuring work by Lowry, and is accompanied by a ‘copy’ made by Kalman himself, on the inside pages of the same catalogue.
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY (BRITISH 1887-1976) GOING TO THE MILL, 1925 signed and indistinctly dated (lower left), oil on panel 43.2cm x 53.4 cm (17in x 21in) Acquired directly from the Artist by A.S. Wallace, 1926, and thence by descent to the present owner. Exhibited:On long-term loan to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 2013-2024L S Lowry’s early masterpiece Going to the Mill was painted a hundred years ago and, quite remarkably, has been in the same private family collection for all but one of those hundred years. It was acquired directly from Lowry by the journalist A.S. Wallace, an editor at the Manchester Guardian who had illustrated three of Lowry’s works in the special ‘Manchester Civic Week’ supplement published by the paper. Civic Week was held from the 2nd to the 9th of October 1925, ostensibly to celebrate Manchester’s industrial success, but also with an ulterior motive to discourage the city’s disgruntled workers from going on strike. It was the grim nature of the workers’ lives that, of course, interested Lowry, but which also made it hard for him to find an audience for his visual elegies of the industrial city – a concept that is perhaps hard to fathom now, for those of us that have grown up knowing Lowry as one of Britain’s most celebrated ‘painters of modern life’. During Civic Week, Lowry’s works were displayed in Lewis’s department store, where they were mostly passed by – despite the favourable reviews the Guardian had given his first solo show in 1921. A.S. Wallace, however, fell for Lowry’s depictions of the ‘lovely, ugly town’ (to borrow from Dylan Thomas’s description of his hometown of Swansea), striking up a friendship with the artist and asking to buy one. Lowry duly obliged: Going to the Mill is marked on the back as being £30 – Lowry let Wallace have it for £10. If not his first ever sale, this has to have been one of his earliest. He also threw in an additional work - The Manufacturing Town. The Wallace family still have Lowry’s letter of 9th November 1926, in which the artist writes: ‘Many thanks for your letter and cheque £10. I am very glad Mrs Wallace likes the picture Going to Work and take the liberty of asking you to please accept The Manufacturing Town as a souvenir of the Civic Week. I can assure you that it will always be with great pleasure that I shall think of that Saturday morning.’ The latter painting was sold by the Wallace family – with Lowry’s blessing, as he understood that a new generation of the family needed help getting set up – and is now in the collection of the Science Museum in London. Going to the Mill was kept – recently being on long term loan to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, and only comes to market now as a further generation finds themselves in need of a ‘leg up.’Going to the Mill is the epitome of a 1920s Lowry, when he truly becomes a unique voice. In the overall smoky, sooty quality of the sky and buildings – it will be a few years yet before Lowry begins to stage his visions of the city against isolating backgrounds of plain flake-white – we see the influence of his teacher, Alphonse Valette, who had been drawn to Manchester precisely for its grit and the Romantic quality of its dark streets and thick polluted skies, the poetic fallacy of heavy-set architecture shrouded in smog, from which individual stories emerged, lamp-lit for moments, before being swallowed up by the gloom. Yet Lowry holds our attention to these individual lives much longer (and this is eventually the function of those white backdrops, to separate individuals from the mass and to hold them in time). Looking at Going to the Mill, initially all we see is a crowd, drawn inextricably – like water pouring towards a drain – to the gate of the mill on the left. But Lowry invites us to spend time looking, and slowly the painting reveals the men walking away from the mill, the woman standing alone looking out at us, drawing the viewer into the lives of others, or the man carrying what seems like a large portfolio, who could be an avatar of Lowry himself. As such, the crowd is broken down into individuals, each with a story – a story that Lowry himself manages to capture with a flick of the brush, a weighting of the paint, a bend of the knee or turn of the shoulder. Going to the Mill shows us that he is no naif painter of ‘matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs’ as the old pop song goes – this is an artist of true dexterity who is making a deliberate formal choice, abstracting the figure, in order to express a concept, the sense of a life lived in even the smallest, most incidental figure. His works are as composed and deliberate as Seurat’s A Sunday on La Grande Jatte but imbued with an intensity of feeling more easily found in Van Gogh’s early paintings of Dutch peasants. These comparisons are not over-blown, not least as Lowry, in the early 30s, was one of the very few British artists exhibiting in the Salon in Paris and gaining recognition for the precision and intensity of his vision. And it is important to note that it was T. J. Clark, the great art historian of French painting of the late 19th and early 20th century, who curated Lowry’s 2014 Tate retrospective and presented Lowry deliberately as another of the great ‘painters of modern life’.Lowry’s paintings are never simple renditions of what he saw on the streets of his beloved city (or, more accurately, cities – Salford and Manchester). Works such as Going to the Mill are theatrical in their conception, which is why the ‘backdrop’ of the mill at Pendlebury repeats itself, often in altered configurations, throughout his works – such as the slightly later A Town Square, formerly in the Midland Bank collection, which sold at Sotheby’s in 2024. The city becomes a stage for an exploration of loneliness, isolation, loss, hope, although in Lowry’s hands the buildings themselves function as actors – figuring birth, marriage, death and the tyranny of mill-time, before, in later works, they are enveloped in an all-consuming white of Beckettian structure. Lowry was an inveterate theatre-goer who – intriguingly, instructively – cited both the 1920s ‘kitchen sink’ drama Hindle Wakes and Luigi Pirandello’s absurdist masterpiece Six Characters in Search of an Author as highly influential on his work. The breadth between these two plays indicates the breadth of Lowry’s conceptual framework for his apparently ‘simple’ painting. This conceptual reach, centred on the urban experience, is – as T. J. Clark argues so persuasively - what makes Lowry so relevant today, in our world of megalopolises, many of them growing at the same break-neck speed as Victorian Manchester once did.
L. S. Lowry, British (1887-1976) Oil Sketch on Panel, "Park Scene". Signed and dated 1960 lower left. Measures 7-1/8" H, 9-3/4" W; frame measures 12-1/2" H, 14-1/2" W. Provenance: acquired by the current owner's parents in the 1970s in Salford, Manchester, England; The Trafford Gallery, London, England. Kodner Galleries offers phone and absentee bidding at a low, flat 21% buyer’s premium without surcharge or hidden fees. For information, please contact the gallery at [email protected] or 954.925.2550 Condition: Good condition. Estimate: $30,000.00 - $50,000.00 Domestic Shipping: $100.00
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) Woman with A Beard signed in pencil and numbered 529 with stamp offset lithograph in colours, from the edition of 750, printed by Chorley & Pickersgill Ltd, England, published by Adam Collection Ltd, with Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamp, on wove paper, with full margins sheet 69.5 x 55 cm, unframed Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (Brtish 1887-1976) Head study bears inscription 'L S Lowry/9th Jan 1961/explaining picture of his/he would like to buy/back. MB.' (lower left) pencil on Dolland & Aitchison Ltd envelope 12 x 14.5 cm, unframed Provenance: Purchased by Monty Bloom from Mrs Bedford, Southport, in November 1965 (according to inscription). Thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) Street scenes (recto and verso), and ghostly figure biro and pencil on pamphlet cover on The Common Market (street scenes), biro on brown envelope (ghostly figure) 20 x 25 cm, unframed (street scenes), 23 x 10 cm, unframed (ghostly figure) (2) Qty: (2) Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) Mountain ash, South Wales inscribed by Monty Bloom 'Explanation of scene for a Painting of Mountain Ash, South Wales./Dcember 1965.' (verso) felt tip 18 x 24.5 cm, unframed Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) The Emporium, thought to be Bargoed Emporium Store, South Wales (recto); lanDscape sketch (verso) biro 50 x 35 cm, unframed Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) Charles the cat and sun signed and dated 'L S Lowry 1964' (lower right), inscribed 'Charles' (lower left) pencil 12.5 x 17.5 cm, unframed Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) Martin between two cats signed and inscribed 'Best of Luck for/your music exam on/Wednesday/ L S Lowry' (upper centre) biro on Good Luck card, verso 13.5 x 10.6 cm, unframed Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
† Laurence Stephen Lowry (British 1887-1976) Charles on a table signed and dated 'L S Lowry 1964' (lower right), inscribed 'Charles' (lower left) pencil 13 x 17 cm, unframed Provenance: Monty Bloom, thence by descent.
▲ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA (1887-1976) 'Market Scene in a Northern Town', 1939 lithograph in colours, 1973, signed 'L. S. Lowry' in pencil l.r., an edition of 750, published by Patrick Seale, courtesy of Salford Museum and Art Gallery image 45.5 x 60.5cm Condition Report: Framed: 71 x 84cm A little discolouration to the margins caused by the mount. The print has a slightly yellow/ green hue overall, please refer to illustration. Not viewed out of glazed frame.
▲ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA (1887-1976) 'Woman with a Beard' offset lithograph in colours, 1975, signed 'L S Lowry' in pencil l.r., stamped '622' from the edition of 750, printed by Chorley and Pickersgill Ltd., published by the Adam Collection Ltd., with the Fine Art Trade Guild blind stamp image 58 x 48cm Provenance: With Halcyon Gallery, London. Condition Report: Framed: 96 x 83.5cm Presents well overall when viewed in the frame. Viewed out of the glazed frame there is a border of discolouration to the margins from the mount. The print has tape applied to the front of the upper and lower edges, there is some brown tape residue aong the top edge. Please see additional condition images.
▲ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA (1887-1976) Figures with dogs and a pram signed 'L. S. Lowry' l.l., red chalk 7.5 x 17.5cm Condition Report: Framed: 21.5 x 32cm Vertical fold marks to the centre and the right side. Creasing. Time staining and foxing. There is a combination of typed and handwritten text on the reverse which shows through the paper. Not viewed out of glazed frame.
▲ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA (1887-1976) Houses by a road signed with initials l.l., and dated '1930' l.r., pencil 13 x 18cm Provenance: Phillips, London, '20th Century British and Irish Art', 4 December 2001, lot 100. Condition Report: Framed: 32.5 x 37cm Laid down. The edges are a little uneven. Light foxing starting to emerge in places. A little time staining. Dirty marks and smudges with some small dark speckles, please refer to illustration. Not viewed out of glazed frame.
▲ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA (1887-1976) A country landscape with buildings signed and dated 'L. S. Lowry 1930' l.l., also dated l.r., pencil 23 x 31.5cm Condition Report: Framed: 41.5 x 50.5cm Foxing and light creasing. A diagonal fold runs from the lower left corner to the right edge, lower centre. Not viewed out of glazed frame.
Oil painting on canvas in the manner of Laurence Stephen Lowry. Titled 'Blitzed Site'. Signed and dated 1957 (?) lower right. Measures 23 1/2" x 16 1/2".
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY RBA RA (1887-1976); a pencil signed limited edition print, 'Landscape with Farm Buildings', with Fine Art Trade Guild stamp for 722, signed lower right, 44 x 52cm, framed and glazed.
Laurence Stephen Lowry RBA RA, British 1887-1976, The Family; offset lithograph in colours on wove, after an original painting of 1965, signed in pen, with printer blind stamps, image: 36.5 x 21.2 cm, (framed) (ARR)
Laurence Stephen Lowry RBA RA, British 1887-1976, The Contraption; lithograph in colours on wove, after the painting of 1949, signed in pencil, blind stamped by the Fine Art Trade Guild, printed by Chorley and Pickersgill, courtesy of Mr and Mrs Andreas Kalman, published by the Adam collection in 1975, image: 31.5 x 30 cm, (framed) (ARR) Note: together with two extra offset lithographic prints (After Laurence Stephen Lowry, Nursery Sketches and Contraption Sketch).
Laurence Stephen Lowry RBA RA, British 1887-1976, Market Scene in a Northern Town, 1973; offset lithograph in colours on wove, signed in pencil, from the edition of 750, published by Patrick Seale Prints Ltd., London, in collaboration with Salford Museum and Art Gallery, 1973, image: 45.5 x 60.5 cm, (framed) (ARR)
Laurence Stephen Lowry RBA RA, British 1887-1976, Crime Lake, 1971; offset lithograph on wove, signed in pencil, from the edition of 500, stamped by the Fine Art Trade guild, printed in Austria by Max Jaffe, published by the Adam Collection in 1971, image: 45 x 60 cm, (framed) (ARR)
Laurence Stephen Lowry RBA RA, British 1887-1976, Ferry Boats, 1972; offset lithograph in colours on wove, signed in pencil, from the edition of 500, published by Venture Prints Ltd., Bristol, with the Fine Art Trade Guild blind stamp, image: 34.4 x 43.3 cm, (framed) (ARR)
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY (BRITISH 1887–1976) PUNCH & JUDY - 1947 Off-set lithograph, signed and dated in plate, with printed details, published by The Baynard Press for School Prints Ltd., London 48.5cm x 75.5cm (19in x 29.75in)
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY (BRITISH 1887–1976) PUNCH & JUDY - 1943 Off-set lithograph, 44/75, signed and numbered in pencil, signed and dated in plate, published by The Baynard Press for School Prints Ltd, London 43.5cm x 67.5cm (17in x 26.5in)
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY (BRITISH 1887–1976) MAN LYING ON A WALL - 1957 Off-set lithograph, 236/500, signed and numbered in pencil to margin the image 40.5cm x 50.5cm (16in x 20in)
Laurence Stephen Lowry RA, British 1887-1976 - The Church at Northleach, c.1940s; pencil on paper, signed lower right 'L. S. Lowry', 27.5 x 36 cm (ARR) Provenance: Halcyon Gallery, London, stock no. LSL/PWC/LAN/71434 (label attached to the reverse of the frame); private collection Note: the present work relates to the painting 'Northleach Church, 1947' that was sold at Christie's, London, on the 23rd November 1993. This painting was shown at the Lefevre Gallery exhibition 'Paintings and Drawings by L.S. Lowry, R.A.', 1976 and also as part of the Arts Council of Northern Ireland exhibition in Belfast 'L.S. Lowry' when it was on long-term loan to Salford, Museum and Art Gallery. The present work was drawn when Lowry was staying with a previous owner's parents in the area in the 1940s. L.S. Lowry is best known for his industrial landscapes of North West England, particularly around Salford and Pendlebury, Lancashire, where he worked as a rent collector for most of his career. In the present drawing, Lowry has distilled the architectural forms of the church and graveyard in a series of bold, confident lines, to create an economic but striking depiction of this view. Churches would be a repeated subject in his work throughout his career, reflecting his interest in monumental architectural forms and a sense of British social and religious history.
Level crossing 1946. Limited Edition print 55/99. Stamped official certificate. Enclosed in an ebonised frame. PICTURES AND PRINTS Thursday 13th March 2025 Approximate Time 15:51:48
Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) Great Ancoats Street Lithograph, 1930, signed in pencil, numbered from the edition of 850, published by Harold Riley, Salford, on wove paper, with full margins, sheet 290 x 387mm (11 1/2 x 15 1/4in) This lot is sold subject to Artists Resale Rights, details of which can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) St Luke's Church, Old Street, London Lithograph printed in colours, 1973, signed in pencil, numbered from the edition of 850, published by G.R. Mellor London, 695 x 520mm (27 3/8 x 20 1/2in) This lot is sold subject to Artists Resale Rights, details of which can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
L.S. Lowry R.A. (1887-1976) Level Crossing with Train Offset lithograph printed in colours, 1973, signed in pencil, the edition was 750, published by Patrick Seale Prints, London, on smooth wove paper, sheet 460 x 560mm (18 1/8 x 22in) This lot is sold subject to Artists Resale Rights, details of which can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) The Football Match Lithograph, 1973, signed in pencil, numbered from the edition of 850, published by Grove Galleries, Manchester, with their blindstamp, on wove paper, with full margins, image 270 x 370mm (10 1/2 x 14 1/2in) This lot is sold subject to Artists Resale Rights, details of which can be found in our Terms and Conditions.
Coming home from the mill. 1928. Limited Edition print with stamped official certificate. Enclosed in a gilt frame. PICTURES AND PRINTS Tuesday 11th March 2025 Approximate Time 16:55:30
LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY RA RBA (1887-1976); a limited edition print on paper, 'The Old Town Hall, Middlesborough', unsigned, Adam Collection blind stamp, 638/850, 41 x 31cm, with a signed limited edition Bob Richardson print, 411/500, both framed and glazed (2).
§ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA, RBA (1887-1976) The Pond signed 'L.S. Lowry' (lower right) colour reproduction with the Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamp; unnumbered from an edition of 850, published by Mainstone Publications in 1974 47 x 60cm
§ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA, RBA (1887-1976) Britain at Play signed 'L.S. Lowry' (lower right); unnumbered from an edition of 850, published by Mainstone publications colour reproduction with Fine Art Trade Guild blindstamp 48.5 x 62cm
§ Laurence Stephen Lowry RA, RBA (1887-1976) Study for 'The Beach at Roker'; the reverse with a further sketch twice signed and dated 'LS Lowry 1960' (lower left and lower right) ink 17.5 x 25.5cm Provenance: Sale; Dreweatts, 20 June, 2013, lot 24 Lowry first visited Roker Beach in Sunderland in 1960. Staying exclusively in the same first-floor room at the Seaburn Hotel, the seaside resort would become a recurring subject in his work until his death in 1976. Lowry was noted to have used the hotel's dining room to sketch from as he gazed out over the North Sea. Unlike many artists of his era, Lowry was less captivated by the sparkling sands and vibrant blues of the coastline. Instead, he was drawn to the lingering presence of industry in this still-active yet declining port. In this work, gambolling families occupy the foreground, but they are framed by symbols of commerce and labour. Reflecting on the location, in a 1976 interview with the Sunderland Echo, he remarked, “You can sense the industry of Sunderland not far away, even though you can't see it.” In 2011, an oil depicting the same scene was sold by Christie’s for £301,250.
