Laurence Stephen Lowry RA (1887-1976)
Street scene, factory gates
Signed and dated 1962, oil on board, 17cm by 15cm

Provenance: Crane Kalman Gallery, London, 14 March 2002, April 1964
Ex Collection D Heyward Esq
Sale; Christie's, London "20th Century British Art", 5th March 1999, lot 175

Lowry was not interested in reproducing an exact copy of the streets and people he had seen while he walked through Pendlebury and Manchester, instead noting the features around him and building composite images based on these studies. Indeed, much of the architecture is repeated throughout Lowry's industrial scenes, whether that be the church spire breaking through the chimney stacks, the domed roof of the mill or even the mill gates themselves, many of which can be seen in this small study completed in 1962.

Street scene, factory gates illustrates Lowry's development of figure studies, moving from adding figures which he took from his sketch books to impressionistic representations consisting of only a couple of brushstrokes, suggesting the movement of the crowds. While these figures may be of simple form, his compositional skill guides the viewers eye around the picture, either by rows of figures which bring the gaze into the heart of the picture or by sectioning off areas with an architectural feature or wall to create a scene within a scene. As is evident in this small oil, the eye is drawn up from the lower edge of the panel by the group of figures in the foreground heading up to a narrow lane, squeezed by the mill to the left and the tower on the right to suggest subtlety of a bus heading off into the distance.


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