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拍品专文
It is, sadly, a well-known fact that Lowry's mother did not bestow much praise on her son's painterly efforts. The closest she ever came to praising him was to admit a grudging liking for one of his Lytham St Annes yacht paintings by saying to him what a shame it was that he did not paint more pictures like that. This faint praise went sufficiently to Lowry's head as to make him place the painting in question in his bedroom where it stayed until his death.
In the days before overseas travel for all, and when the export of foreign currency was a deeply fraught minefield, Lytham St Annes was a popular seaside resort for those just sufficiently well-off to avoid Wakes Week and Blackpool for their brief holidays. Even my family managed a couple of weeks on its beaches in the closing year of the war.
The yachts in this painting are much more realistic than the faintly impressionistic ones that Mrs Lowry had approved of. It was painted some eleven years after the death of Lowry's mother and some twelve years before he became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1962.
Lowry's yacht paintings vary considerably in style. Some of them are done with an impressionistic verve reminiscent of Boudin at his best, while others are more controlled and even academic in style. Had Lowry been in the frame for the R.A. in 1950 one would have confidently predicted its inclusion in the Summer Show but he did not even become an A.R.A until 1955.
There is a solidarity about his version of these yachts which is doubtless due to the fact that the bulk of the boats are moored, with or without sails up, close to the shore. In both colourfulness and the sense of motion many of Lowry's other yacht paintings are altogether lighter and 'prettier'.
Another factor in the significant variations of the yacht paintings must be the somewhat eccentric activity of the sun on England's North-West coast. The pretty 'yachts' have bright colours, lit up by an active sun. In the picture here the sail colours are more of less uniform and the sun is conspicuous by its absence. Or if it is at all in evidence, (see the reflections in the water beneath the four central yachts) it is at some height well above the upper edge of the canvas.
This is an untypical Lowry but a very good one. If the pretty ones recall Boudin then this serious one, beautifully composed, is painted with a technical skill that utterly demolishes the usual foolish notions about Lowry the naïve painter. It recalls the best of the Dutch marine painters, with their passion for accuracy and their painstaking handling of northern light.
T.G.R.
In the days before overseas travel for all, and when the export of foreign currency was a deeply fraught minefield, Lytham St Annes was a popular seaside resort for those just sufficiently well-off to avoid Wakes Week and Blackpool for their brief holidays. Even my family managed a couple of weeks on its beaches in the closing year of the war.
The yachts in this painting are much more realistic than the faintly impressionistic ones that Mrs Lowry had approved of. It was painted some eleven years after the death of Lowry's mother and some twelve years before he became a full member of the Royal Academy in 1962.
Lowry's yacht paintings vary considerably in style. Some of them are done with an impressionistic verve reminiscent of Boudin at his best, while others are more controlled and even academic in style. Had Lowry been in the frame for the R.A. in 1950 one would have confidently predicted its inclusion in the Summer Show but he did not even become an A.R.A until 1955.
There is a solidarity about his version of these yachts which is doubtless due to the fact that the bulk of the boats are moored, with or without sails up, close to the shore. In both colourfulness and the sense of motion many of Lowry's other yacht paintings are altogether lighter and 'prettier'.
Another factor in the significant variations of the yacht paintings must be the somewhat eccentric activity of the sun on England's North-West coast. The pretty 'yachts' have bright colours, lit up by an active sun. In the picture here the sail colours are more of less uniform and the sun is conspicuous by its absence. Or if it is at all in evidence, (see the reflections in the water beneath the four central yachts) it is at some height well above the upper edge of the canvas.
This is an untypical Lowry but a very good one. If the pretty ones recall Boudin then this serious one, beautifully composed, is painted with a technical skill that utterly demolishes the usual foolish notions about Lowry the naïve painter. It recalls the best of the Dutch marine painters, with their passion for accuracy and their painstaking handling of northern light.
T.G.R.