Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A.

Gifted by the Artist to the previous owner's family, 13th March 1960
Their sale, Christie's London, 21st November 1995, lot 241, where acquired by the late owner

London, Crane Kalman Gallery, Lowry, Heads, 27th April - 3rd June 2000, un-numbered exhibition (as Portrait of a Man).

The following condition report has been prepared by Hamish Dewar or Hamish Dewar Ltd., 13 & 14 Mason's Yard, Duke Street, St James's, London, SW1Y 6BU.Structural Condition:The artist's board is providing a sound and secure structural support. There are some very faint vertical lines corresponding to the grain of the wood which are entirely stable and are not visually distracting.Paint Surface:The paint surface has the artist's characteristically dry and unvarnished appearance and I am sure would benefit from surface cleaning should this be required. There are some very minor historic chips around the outer edges of the panel which should be covered by the framing sight edge.Inspection under ultra-violet light shows no evidence of any retouching.Summary:The painting would therefore appear to be in excellent and stable condition and while no work is required for reasons of conservation, cleaning would be beneficial if required.Housed behind glass in a thick gilt frame.Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Whilst the works assembled in the present collection are geared primarily towards the urban landscape, Head of a Boy stands out from the crowd as the only painting that focuses exclusively on a single figure. Marking a bold departure from the characteristic style that, by the 1950s Lowry had become widely known for, Head of a Boy exists not only as a straightforward portrait, drawing on the technical ability of an artist well trained in life class, but as a further understanding by Lowry of the very embodiment of many of his most important ideological and psychological beliefs. 

The story of the painting is relatively straightforward, executed in the dining room of a family that the artist knew and often visited, eating a staple supper of tomato soup, lamb chops with chips, followed by rice pudding with plenty of skin. Yet the painting holds an important position within the development of the artist’s later figurative approach. Lowry had trained extensively in life drawing, spending hour after hour in studies at Manchester School of Art and later the Salford Royal Technical College. This early academic approach, with fine, studied lines, soon developed into the stark and haunting series of frontal bust-length portraits of the 1930s.  Here, in works such as Head of a Man (with Red Eyes) (1938, The Lowry, Salford) Lowry captured the types of people that he lived and worked amongst – the Manchester man.  In these early portraits in which the artist greys the often sagging skin, with eyes reddened by the thick, engulfing smog that filled every industrial pre-war city in Britain, his figures exist not as individuals, but as types; as characters in search of their author.

With the onset of the second half of the twentieth century his style had lightened, with a fresh, porcelain white capturing the pallid skin of those that he lived and worked amongst, a sign perhaps of the abounding hope of a new society in the emerging welfare state. The development of this dramatic new style of portraiture, which came to dominate the artist’s output during this period, is inextricably linked to the appearance of two key figures within Lowry's life, Monty Bloom and the slightly less tangible Ann. Support for this new style of work was not forthcoming, until Bloom's chance encounter with them at Lowry's home in Mottram. Bloom, a Welsh businessman, had first met Lowry at an opening at Andras Kalman’s Manchester gallery, beginning what was to become one of the most important relationships within the artist’s life. Bloom was particularly drawn to the artist’s recent series of odd, beguiling portraits, including those of the mysterious figure of Ann (fig.1) - less of a portrait and more of a construct. These striking, almost fantasy-driven portraits followed a simple structure in their outline, at once so feminine, almost feline in their approach.  Looking towards the present work, unique in the nature of its execution in a staged portrait-like environment (which the artist rarely favoured), Lowry obviously looked back to the strong structure of his Ann portraits; past the sweeping, jet black hair, the eye is immediately drawn to the luscious red of the sitter’s pouting lips.

Whilst often inappropriately grouped together under the label of ‘grotesques’, the portraits that Lowry produced during this period form an important and central part of his extensive output. This was a period in which he turned his back on celebrity and commercial success in favour of a subject and style that he felt artistically drawn to. They display, as so beautifully captured in the present work, the unique and ever-shifting approach that the artist took towards his subject matter, and his lifelong fascination with society and the human form. These portraits become a means of self-analysis: self-portraits by an artist looking back on his life and career.