WORKS BY LOWRY LEAD BONHAMS MODERN BRITISH AND IRISH ART SALE

Works by Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (1887-1976) lead Bonhams Modern British and Irish Art sale on 18 November at Bonhams New Bond Street, London. The top lot is A Lancashire Town, painted in 1963, when L.S. Lowry had secured his position as one of the most distinctive and evocative chroniclers of modern British life. The work has an estimate of £700,000 – 1,000,000. Other Lowry highlights in the sale include Excavations at Manchester (estimate: £500,000 – £800,000) and The Orator (estimate: £400,000 – £600,000).

Chrisopher Dawson, Bonhams Head of Modern British and Irish Art, commented: “We are delighted to present four outstanding paintings by L.S. Lowry this autumn, from an Important Private UK Collection. Spanning more than thirty years of the artist’s career, these works offer a wonderful cross-section of the subjects that occupied him throughout his life, and his lasting fascination with the people of Northern England. From the labourers at work on a textile warehouse in Excavations at Manchester, to the closely gathered crowd in The Orator, and the children and families going about their daily lives in the familiar panorama of A Lancashire Town, each painting offers a different glimpse of the world Lowry observed and recorded so distinctively. It was Lowry’s ability to capture the ordinary moments of everyday life, set against the backdrop of a changing industrial landscape, that makes his work so resonant. This collection and other works by the artist come to the market at a particularly poignant moment, fifty years after the artist’s death, and as his life and work are celebrated in a major retrospective at MK Gallery.”

Painted in 1963, A Lancashire Town reflects L.S. Lowry at the height of his career, following his election as a Royal Academician in 1962. Drawing on decades of observation of Lancashire’s streets, factories and communities, the work is less a depiction of a specific place than an evocative composite of northern life. A Lancashire Town exemplifies his unique ability to transform ordinary moments into enduring images of community, place and character.

Left to right: Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976), Excavations at Manchester, 43.7 x 63 cm. (17 1/4 x 24 3.4 in.). Estimate: £500,000 – £800,000. Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976), The Orator, 51.1 x 61.3 cm. (20 1/8 x 24 1/8 in.). Estimate: £400,000 – £600,000

Other highlights of the sale include:

Edward Burra (British, 1905-1976), Landscape with Beans, 77.4 x 133.7 cm. (30 1/2 x 52 5/8 in.). Estimate: £120,000 – £180,000.

Euan Uglow (British, 1932-2000), Palm Tree, 45.8 x 45.8 cm. (18 x 18 in.). Estimate: £100,000 – £150,000.

Patrick Heron (British, 1920-1999), OVERLAPPED VERMILIONS WITH YELLOW EDGE : JUNE 1965 ,122.4 x 132.8 cm. (48 1/4 x 52 1/4 in.). Estimate: £100,000 – £150,000.

Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976), Old Shot Tower, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 40.6 x 50.8 cm. (16 x 20 in.). Estimate: £100,000 – £150,000.

Keith Vaughan (British, 1912-1977), Cortez in Mexico, 114.7 x 152.8 cm. (45 1/4 x 60 1/4 in.). Estimate: £100,000 – £150,000.

Henry Moore O.M., C.H. (British, 1898-1986), Maquette for Fallen Warrior, 27.1 cm. (10 3/4 in.) wide. Estimate: £80,000 – £120,000.