LOWRY L S

Laurence Stephen Lowry (1 November 1887 - 23 February 1976) AKA L.S. Lowry is without a doubt, the most famous Northern artist in the UK.
You cannot speak of the Northern Art genre without mentioning L.S. Lowry.

The well-known English artist’s drawings and paintings mainly portray Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its surrounding areas.

Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the Industrial areas of Northwest England, in the mid-20th century. He developed a typical style of art and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures, often referred to as "matchstick men". He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death.

He had an extraordinary ability to record seemingly mundane moments with his distinctive short-hand technique, describing a whole way of life with just a few strokes of a brush or pencil.

However, his use of stylised figures, which cast no shadows, and lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes led critics to label him a naïve, Sunday painter. How wrong were they!

DID YOU KNOW that Lowry rejected five British honours, including a knighthood in 1968?

The most renowned place to see a collection of Lowry’s work is at The Lowry, a purpose-built art gallery in Salford Quays.

On 26 June 2013, a major retrospective opened at the Tate Britain in London, his first at the
gallery. In 2014 his first solo exhibition was held outside the UK.

L.S. Lowry paintings and drawings are highly collectable. In October 2022, The Lowry Arts Centre in Salford bought one of the most famous Lowry pieces ‘Going to the Match’ (1953) to keep the iconic masterpiece at The Lowry Gallery and prevent it from going into a private collection. They paid a staggering £7.8 million including fees at an auction.