Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A.

Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd, London, where acquired by the family of the present owner in 1967

London, Alex. Reid & Lefevre Ltd, L.S. Lowry, 11th May - 3rd June 1967, cat. no.17.

The canvas has been lined. There are some minor areas of horizontal paint cracking in the sky with further scattered areas to the left and right of the figure at the bottom of the composition. There is some very minor surface dirt in the bottom right corner. With the exception of the above the painting appears to be in good condition. Ultraviolet light reveals no obvious signs of florescence. The painting is presented in a gilt frame with a linen wrapped slip. Please contact the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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'They are ghostly figures which tenant these courts and laneways which seem to me so beautiful, they are symbols of my mood, they are myself.' (L S Lowry, quoted in Michael Howard, Lowry a Visionary Artist, Lowry Press, Salford, 2000, p.13)

By the 1960s when Lowry painted this work, he was shifting his focus from panoramic views of the city towards individual figures. However, in this haunting painting he exploits the urban landscape with remarkable technical prowess to further his theme of isolation and loneliness. Lowry’s strategic placing of the buildings within the composition creates a sophisticated structure: the dividing wall, densely painted in dark pigments forms a band of black which splits the composition, separating the group of three on one side of the wall from the figure at the front. The solitary silhouette of the elderly lady walking in the foreground is hemmed in between this wall and the wall at the bottom edge of the canvas, whilst the one-dimensional, almost cut-out arch to the right, and tall building to the left, frame the composition. The curve of the lamp-post is echoed in the curve of the arch and contrasted with the geometric angles of the roof as the outlines of the buildings are reduced to their most simplified forms. Lowry's use of colour draws us into this deceptively simple scene: the abstract flat sheet of flake-white which forms the backdrop to this work, creates a sense of infinity stretching into the distance. By placing the figures against this plain white background they become further isolated, whilst the hints of colours in the characters' clothing set against the almost monochrome painting lead us around the composition from figure to figure.

It was this carefully chosen cast of characters that was Lowry's primary concern in this work. Unlike his earlier crowd scenes where the hurrying figures remain anonymous, delineated by rapid brush-strokes, here Lowry has given each figure a face and thus an identity: we see the shawled lady with black cape, the gentleman wearing a tie and the bearded man each of which lean on the dividing wall while the elderly lady with her painful stoop hesitantly makes her way along the road under the watchful gaze of the other three. This ambiguous painting plays on the concept of observation played out in the title: The Lookers On. Each face stares out of the canvas directly at us in a slightly unsettling manner begging the question: are we as the viewer the 'lookers on' or are we actually the ones being looked at? Michael Howard wrote, 'In these panoramas and street scenes, people are always under scrutiny, under the public gaze, just as Lowry's clients were when he did his rounds as a rent collector. No one can leave his pictures, no one can escape the gaze of others, including that of the viewer' (Michael Howard, Lowry A Visionary Artist, Lowry Press, Salford, 2000, p.151).