.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A Street Scene epitomises Lowry’s approach to the anonymous urban street. The scene is composed of a wide stage-like foreground, framed with the prominent red arches of the railway bridge and the ghostly familiar shapes of the industrial building and church spires. The figures are delicately arranged in such a way that social interactions are merely hinted at; as always, the emotional distance of the viewer is preserved. Lowry renders their faces indistinct and lacking in features with the dab of his brush. He insures that the viewer observes this scene as through one would looking out of a window – unable to decipher more than the most basic of interactions. This technique simultaneously invites the viewer to imagine their own circumstances and suggests the sense of loneliness in crowds, which was such a constant theme in Lowry’s work.
Lowry accomplished his distinctive style as early as the late 1920s and continued to develop this philosophy for the remaining five decades of his career. Caring little for change in fashion and technology, Michael Howard describes that ‘Lowry was adept at editing out of his art anything that did not interest him … and from the late 1950s onwards, television aerials are, like his shadows, conspicuous only by their absence’ (M. Howard, Lowry: A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, p. 126). Lowry’s disinterest in the details of urban change is further accentuated in the portrayal of the car in the background of the scene – a boxy model reminiscent of the designs of the first quarter of the 20th century, rather than the early 1960s.
While Lowry remained aloof to the activities of the avant-garde and notions of ‘modernity’, he shares many of their characteristics, including the use of arbitrary colouration and flatness. Lowry’s use of white is a predominant feature of the work, making up the street, buildings and sky. It is something of a characteristic of his oeuvre, as the method prevented his paintings, which were dark and industrial in subject matter, from being ‘very black’ (Lowry quoted in M. Howard, ibid., p. 109).
A Street Scene was formally in the collection of Dr F.H. Kroch, who founded Lankro Chemicals (now called Akcros Chemicals) in Eccles in 1937. Under Kroch's leadership throughout the 1940s, '50s and '60s the company grew to become one of the area's largest employers. In 1967 Dr Kroch was made a Freeman of Eccles in recognition of his work in the community and in 1973 was created a Commander of the British Empire. Two paintings by Lowry formerly in the collection of Dr Kroch are now in public ownership; The Sea (1963) hangs in The Lowry, Salford and Old Salford Street Scene (1922) in the National Museum, Wales. He had been a patron of the Arts particularly supporting Lowry himself and Harold Riley.
Lowry accomplished his distinctive style as early as the late 1920s and continued to develop this philosophy for the remaining five decades of his career. Caring little for change in fashion and technology, Michael Howard describes that ‘Lowry was adept at editing out of his art anything that did not interest him … and from the late 1950s onwards, television aerials are, like his shadows, conspicuous only by their absence’ (M. Howard, Lowry: A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, p. 126). Lowry’s disinterest in the details of urban change is further accentuated in the portrayal of the car in the background of the scene – a boxy model reminiscent of the designs of the first quarter of the 20th century, rather than the early 1960s.
While Lowry remained aloof to the activities of the avant-garde and notions of ‘modernity’, he shares many of their characteristics, including the use of arbitrary colouration and flatness. Lowry’s use of white is a predominant feature of the work, making up the street, buildings and sky. It is something of a characteristic of his oeuvre, as the method prevented his paintings, which were dark and industrial in subject matter, from being ‘very black’ (Lowry quoted in M. Howard, ibid., p. 109).
A Street Scene was formally in the collection of Dr F.H. Kroch, who founded Lankro Chemicals (now called Akcros Chemicals) in Eccles in 1937. Under Kroch's leadership throughout the 1940s, '50s and '60s the company grew to become one of the area's largest employers. In 1967 Dr Kroch was made a Freeman of Eccles in recognition of his work in the community and in 1973 was created a Commander of the British Empire. Two paintings by Lowry formerly in the collection of Dr Kroch are now in public ownership; The Sea (1963) hangs in The Lowry, Salford and Old Salford Street Scene (1922) in the National Museum, Wales. He had been a patron of the Arts particularly supporting Lowry himself and Harold Riley.