Lot Essay
Lowry was attracted to the hustle and bustle of everyday city life, as demonstrated in this 1928 drawing, The Lodging House. Gathered in front of 'Walton House' and 'Hulme House', the men stand in varied poses with their hands behind their backs, thrust into their pockets or folded in front of them, and there is a tangible sense that they are passing the time while waiting to enter the lodging houses. This otherwise cheerless and banal scene appealed to Lowry, who finds intrigue and even humour in the central figure, who is seen marching energetically down the street, walking stick in hand.
In 1938 Lowry returned to this theme in another pencil drawing called Outside the Lodging House (City of Manchester Art Galleries), in which figures gather outside a lodging house to watch a fight taking place, with one man pulling another man's top hat down over his face. This drawing is very similar to the oil painting A Fight, 1935 (The Lowry, Salford), about which Andras Kalman wrote, 'The notice in the window says 'Beds 4d and 6d per Night', so you can gather what kind of an area it is. An argument outside a cheap lodging house, where they probably sleep three a room. "Where there's a quarrel there's always a crowd", said Lowry. "It's a great draw. A quarrel or a body"' (A. Kalman in conversation with A. Lambirth, LS Lowry Conversation Pieces, London, 2003, p. 63).
In 1938 Lowry returned to this theme in another pencil drawing called Outside the Lodging House (City of Manchester Art Galleries), in which figures gather outside a lodging house to watch a fight taking place, with one man pulling another man's top hat down over his face. This drawing is very similar to the oil painting A Fight, 1935 (The Lowry, Salford), about which Andras Kalman wrote, 'The notice in the window says 'Beds 4d and 6d per Night', so you can gather what kind of an area it is. An argument outside a cheap lodging house, where they probably sleep three a room. "Where there's a quarrel there's always a crowd", said Lowry. "It's a great draw. A quarrel or a body"' (A. Kalman in conversation with A. Lambirth, LS Lowry Conversation Pieces, London, 2003, p. 63).