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Lot Essay
L.S. Lowry was visiting Sunderland with Tilly Marshall in 1965 when he spoke of his idea for a self-portrait. Over the following year he painted four versions of this composition; the present work is the second in this series, one Lowry saw as 'the idea of himself when he was younger with a firm hold on life' (T. Marshall, in a letter to the previous owner, 15 January 1990). Formerly on long-term loan to Sunderland Museum and Art Gallery and appearing at auction for the first time, it forms a poignant expression of the human condition, drawing upon a life-long fascination with the sea and its metaphorical resonances.
Lowry made the first of his empty, meditative seascapes after a short stay on Anglesey in 1944, painting 'the sea, nothing but the sea... a sea with no shore and nobody sailing on it' (M. Howard, ibid., p. 232). In the wake of his mother's death in 1939, the enormity and emptiness of the sea became a reflection of his own sense of loneliness and a place of existential contemplation. Later he began to place ships, rocky outcrops and monuments in otherwise empty seas, 'expressions of the pathetic fallacy, whereby inanimate objects are apportioned human attributes' (ibid., p. 225), that speak to his admiration for the work of the Surrealists, particularly Magritte. In this series of self-portraits Lowry overtly connects these lone monuments to a depiction of himself, and the image he conjures of a monument gradually eroded by the sea is familiar and powerful as a metaphor of the futility of resistance to time and nature.
Upright forms such as this are ubiquitous in Lowry’s work and Self Portrait II recalls the chimneys and spires that populate his industrial scenes and portraits of odd, lone figures, as well as landscapes such as the 1936 Landmark, where a similar monument stands atop a distance hill. Andrew Lambirth describes these landscapes as ‘almost like case studies for Freudian interpretation’ (A. Lambirth, exhibition catalogue, The Loneliness of Lowry, Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 2010, p. 14), while drawing a connection to the Romanticism of Caspar David Fredrich and the image of a figure in landscape.
Self Portrait II has a bold design and daring simplicity, with the composition split into three distinct areas of tone and depth: the sky, pillar and sea. The pillar is carefully drawn out as a black silhouette against a white sky, standing on a wall spanning the width of the picture. The sea below is painted in quick strokes of white, ochre, black and green. The geometric aspect of the composition is countered by a sensuous handling of the paint, while dashes of green in the sea enliven a dramatically reduced palette. It is indicative of a visual flair often found in Lowry’s mature seascapes, which are among the most formally inventive of his work. Michael Howard described such works as ‘statement[s] of the human condition, they offer no comprehensive affirmation but are part of a sustained response to the mysteries and profundities of existence, and ultimately they remain as enigmatic as the man responsible for their creation’ (M. Howard, op. cit., p. 243).
Lowry made the first of his empty, meditative seascapes after a short stay on Anglesey in 1944, painting 'the sea, nothing but the sea... a sea with no shore and nobody sailing on it' (M. Howard, ibid., p. 232). In the wake of his mother's death in 1939, the enormity and emptiness of the sea became a reflection of his own sense of loneliness and a place of existential contemplation. Later he began to place ships, rocky outcrops and monuments in otherwise empty seas, 'expressions of the pathetic fallacy, whereby inanimate objects are apportioned human attributes' (ibid., p. 225), that speak to his admiration for the work of the Surrealists, particularly Magritte. In this series of self-portraits Lowry overtly connects these lone monuments to a depiction of himself, and the image he conjures of a monument gradually eroded by the sea is familiar and powerful as a metaphor of the futility of resistance to time and nature.
Upright forms such as this are ubiquitous in Lowry’s work and Self Portrait II recalls the chimneys and spires that populate his industrial scenes and portraits of odd, lone figures, as well as landscapes such as the 1936 Landmark, where a similar monument stands atop a distance hill. Andrew Lambirth describes these landscapes as ‘almost like case studies for Freudian interpretation’ (A. Lambirth, exhibition catalogue, The Loneliness of Lowry, Kendal, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 2010, p. 14), while drawing a connection to the Romanticism of Caspar David Fredrich and the image of a figure in landscape.
Self Portrait II has a bold design and daring simplicity, with the composition split into three distinct areas of tone and depth: the sky, pillar and sea. The pillar is carefully drawn out as a black silhouette against a white sky, standing on a wall spanning the width of the picture. The sea below is painted in quick strokes of white, ochre, black and green. The geometric aspect of the composition is countered by a sensuous handling of the paint, while dashes of green in the sea enliven a dramatically reduced palette. It is indicative of a visual flair often found in Lowry’s mature seascapes, which are among the most formally inventive of his work. Michael Howard described such works as ‘statement[s] of the human condition, they offer no comprehensive affirmation but are part of a sustained response to the mysteries and profundities of existence, and ultimately they remain as enigmatic as the man responsible for their creation’ (M. Howard, op. cit., p. 243).