Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A.

Austen Hayes Gallery, York
Private Collection, New South Wales, Australia

The work is on wove paper which has been laid down. There are a few artist's pinholes in the centre of the upper edge. The left edge is very slightly stained and there are one or two spots of staining along the right edge. There are a few spots of surface matter along the upper edge in the upper left and right quadrants. Held in a simple, wooden rectilinear frame. Please telephone the department on 020 7293 5381 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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One of the factors that made Lowry's mature drawing style so successful was the apparently endless variations of tone and line that he seemed able to extract from this most basic form of artistic expression. Preferring the softer leads, often using 5B or 6B pencils, but also using harder leads for details or scraping away with a fingernail or smudging with the edge of the thumb or the heel of the hand, the range of line within a Lowry drawing is what gives them such life without ever becoming subservient to technique. The present drawing uses the full gamut of his skills to capture moments that are fleeting yet eternal in their observation of human nature.

The corner shop which takes the centre of the backdrop in this drawing was the hub of every poorer community in cities across the country, supplying both groceries and gossip, and thus works as both a signifier of a central gathering point for the figures as well as being the dominant block in the centre of the composition. A tall, narrow central mass is a frequent device used by Lowry, especially when he needs to make a junction point in his composition, and here, as a natural meeting point for the area, it gives reason for his figures to be there. These figures are drawn from Lowry's repertoire of wonderfully observed types reduced to a notational form that nevertheless preserves their individual characteristics, for example one can almost hear the urgent pants of the dog that tugs its owner across the composition.