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Lot Essay
The present work was purchased by the painter David Carr (1915-1968) and was one of a number of very fine Lowry paintings in his outstanding collection of modern art. David Carr had chosen not to join the family biscuit business, preferring to study art at Cedric Morris's East Anglian School of Drawing and Painting in Dedham, alongside fellow students Lucian Freud and Barbara Gilligan, the latter whom he married in 1942. A keen collector with a painter's eye, he wrote to Lowry in 1943 enquiring about a purchase that he wished to make of his work at the Lefevre Gallery. A long correspondence of over a decade ensued, and they frequently met to discuss painting and each other's pictures; Lowry even visited the family at home in East Anglia.
Shelley Rohde writes about their friendship, 'And so early in 1944, in blitzed, blacked-out London, the two artists came together, Carr infecting Lowry with his energy, rushing the elder man up and down New Bond Street, admiring the Old Masters in the gallery windows and venturing inside to inspect the new. They found much in common, not only in their attitudes to their art but in their highly individual concept of humanity. Neither was disappointed in the other. Lowry found Carr so understanding that in November he went so far as to admit in another letter, 'I am so glad you still like that Beach Scene. That is what we all want, you know.' It was rare indeed for him to admit to his own desire for appreciation' (S. Rohde, L.S. Lowry A Biography, Salford, 1999, p. 319).
Lowry and Carr corresponded regularly and the two artists became close friends. In 1945 Lowry was invited to visit David Carr and his family at their home in Norfolk, 'The Carr children thought Lowry fascinating ... [they] quickly learned to identify and report "Lowry figures" among the inhabitants of nearby farms' (op. cit., p. 320). In a letter, dated 8 October 1945, Lowry writes, 'I thought those drawings might prove interesting to you - How dreadfully crude & ill drawn, weren't they - those very first memory impressions. Do keep them as long as ever you like. Please - they are doing nothing at all here. Astonished you liked those pastel Seascapes - I nearly didn't bother to include them ... You speak of your technique in drawing - I wish, at your age, I had handled paint as well as you. Painting from the minds eye & painting from nature are totally different things in my view'.
It is possible that the present work depicts Lytham St Anne's on the Flyde coast, a beach that Lowry first visited as a child and which appears many times in his work. The sea held great significance for Lowry: 'I am very fond of the sea, of course, I have been fond of the sea all my life: how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is' (quoted in J. Spalding, exhibition catalogue, Lowry, Middlesborough, Cleveland Art Gallery, 1987, p. 61). David Carr also observed this in Lowry's work, reiterating its meaning for Lowry: 'The calm, empty sea expressed the solitude he felt in his own nature' (see exhibition catalogue, L.S. Lowry Retrospective Exhibition, Sunderland, Arts Council, Sunderland Art Gallery, 1966, p. 14). The present work, however, depicts a playful and joyous scene, in which a seated female figure and a group of children make sand castles on the beach. The scale of the painting reiterates the intimacy of this family group. It is the standing male figure, facing out to sea with his back to the viewer, who lends a moment of contemplation to the scene, reminding us of the artist himself.
Shelley Rohde writes about their friendship, 'And so early in 1944, in blitzed, blacked-out London, the two artists came together, Carr infecting Lowry with his energy, rushing the elder man up and down New Bond Street, admiring the Old Masters in the gallery windows and venturing inside to inspect the new. They found much in common, not only in their attitudes to their art but in their highly individual concept of humanity. Neither was disappointed in the other. Lowry found Carr so understanding that in November he went so far as to admit in another letter, 'I am so glad you still like that Beach Scene. That is what we all want, you know.' It was rare indeed for him to admit to his own desire for appreciation' (S. Rohde, L.S. Lowry A Biography, Salford, 1999, p. 319).
Lowry and Carr corresponded regularly and the two artists became close friends. In 1945 Lowry was invited to visit David Carr and his family at their home in Norfolk, 'The Carr children thought Lowry fascinating ... [they] quickly learned to identify and report "Lowry figures" among the inhabitants of nearby farms' (op. cit., p. 320). In a letter, dated 8 October 1945, Lowry writes, 'I thought those drawings might prove interesting to you - How dreadfully crude & ill drawn, weren't they - those very first memory impressions. Do keep them as long as ever you like. Please - they are doing nothing at all here. Astonished you liked those pastel Seascapes - I nearly didn't bother to include them ... You speak of your technique in drawing - I wish, at your age, I had handled paint as well as you. Painting from the minds eye & painting from nature are totally different things in my view'.
It is possible that the present work depicts Lytham St Anne's on the Flyde coast, a beach that Lowry first visited as a child and which appears many times in his work. The sea held great significance for Lowry: 'I am very fond of the sea, of course, I have been fond of the sea all my life: how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is' (quoted in J. Spalding, exhibition catalogue, Lowry, Middlesborough, Cleveland Art Gallery, 1987, p. 61). David Carr also observed this in Lowry's work, reiterating its meaning for Lowry: 'The calm, empty sea expressed the solitude he felt in his own nature' (see exhibition catalogue, L.S. Lowry Retrospective Exhibition, Sunderland, Arts Council, Sunderland Art Gallery, 1966, p. 14). The present work, however, depicts a playful and joyous scene, in which a seated female figure and a group of children make sand castles on the beach. The scale of the painting reiterates the intimacy of this family group. It is the standing male figure, facing out to sea with his back to the viewer, who lends a moment of contemplation to the scene, reminding us of the artist himself.