Girl's Head

細節

Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)
Girl's Head
signed and dated 'L.S. Lowry 1955' (lower right)
oil on canvas
20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm.)

來源

with Alex Reid & Lefevre, London, where purchased by Mrs. H. Sacher in 1964, and by descent to the present owner.

展覽

London, Lefevre Gallery, Recent Paintings by L.S. Lowry, October 1958, no. 7.
Salford, The Lowry, on loan until 2007.

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

The present work belongs to a series of paintings by Lowry in which he has depicted the head and shoulders of an individual against an empty background. These works are particularly uncompromising and the figures tend to stare straight out at the viewer. Lowry began working on these type of portraits in the 1930s, a time when he was working full-time at the Pall Mall Property Company in Manchester and nursing his bed-ridden mother. The haunting quality of the heads reflect Lowry's emotional state as he was emotionally and physically drained during this period of his life (see also Head of a man, sold in these rooms, 17 November 2006, lot 138, £254,400, private collection).

Dating from 1955 Girl's Head demonstrates Lowry's continued interest in the grotesque: ' ... It just happened that way. Everything in my life has just happened. There's a grotesque streak in me and I can't help it. My characters? They are all people you might see in a park. They are real people, sad people; something's gone wrong in their lives. I'm attracted to sadness, and there are some very sad things you see' (see M. Howard, Lowry: A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, p. 162).