Why are Lowry's Drawings important?

At the time, Lowry’s drawings were executed directly outside onto the streets, where he would sit and quickly sketch any scene of everyday life that captured his eye onto whatever material he had at hand. He would then later go back to his home to what he referred to as his workroom, where he would go over his sketches and produce more refined drawings. Some of these were later translated pictorially into his famous canvases, whilst others remained only in the guise of drawings, or alternatively translated into lithographs. Importantly, however, Lowry often remarked how he regarded drawing as an art form of its own, rejecting the classical tradition following which drawing was a minor fine art that solely served as a guideline for painting. Instead, Lowry emphasised drawing as a labour-intensive artistic activity not to be subsumed to other practices. The artist even curated an exhibition to be held at Ancoats, a slum of Manchester, made entirely of drawings capturing the city life of the poor industrial area.

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Drawings by L S Lowry Background & Meaning

Drawings

Not only a skilled painter, L.S. Lowry was also a talented and prolific draughtsman. Featuring themes and subjects consistent with his painted works— industrial landscapes, and everyday street-views— his drawings often magnify smaller details than his paintings, veering away from the vast, elevated scope of his painted cityscapes.

Meaning & Analysis

Not only a skilled painter, Lowry is also renowned for his mass drawing production, like those seen here, creating over 8000 works in his lifetime. Not only a skilled painter, Lowry is also notable for his production of drawings, which amount to over 8000 works that the artist began to produce when he was only 18 up until the day of his death.

While Lowry is mostly remembered for his representations of the industrial British North and its working-class population, the artist produced an equal number of drawings whose subject matter ranges from the slums and poor areas of industrial cities like Manchester or Salford to quaint and peaceful scenes of weekend outings and children gatherings. The whole conjunction of these drawings as a coherent corpus attests to Lowry’s committed engagement towards representing every aspect of urban everyday life, which he meticulously translated visually onto paper, in a project which many critics have termed “Lowry’s social realism”.

The artist was first exposed to drawing when he was 18. At the time, Lowry and his family found themselves in a difficult financial situation, his father struggling to make a living, which ultimately forced the family to move from a residential area to a house in industrial Pendlebury in 1909, when Lowry was only 22. Throughout these years, the young and inexperienced artist supported his family by working as a debt collector by day. His first steps within art are thus to be found at a critical and difficult time in the artist’s life, which nevertheless translated into an even deeper dedication to his craft as a form of blissful escapism. Due to his job, Lowry had no choice but to dedicate himself to painting and drawing by night. He did so, by regularly attending the Municipal College Of Art and the Salford School of Art, where he then studied under French Impressionist painter Adolphe Valette.

At the time, Lowry’s drawings were executed directly outside onto the streets, where he would sit and quickly sketch any scene of everyday life that captured his eye onto whatever material he had at hand. He would then later go back to his home to what he referred to as his workroom, where he would go over his sketches and produce more refined drawings. Some of these were later translated pictorially into his famous canvases, whilst others remained only in the guise of drawings, or alternatively translated into lithographs. Importantly, however, Lowry often remarked how he regarded drawing as an art form of its own, rejecting the classical tradition following which drawing was a minor fine art that solely served as a guideline for painting. Instead, Lowry emphasised drawing as a labour-intensive artistic activity not to be subsumed to other practices. The artist even curated an exhibition to be held at Ancoats, a slum of Manchester, made entirely of drawings capturing the city life of the poor industrial area.
According to art historian Anne Wagner, what Lowry was able to accomplish through his drawings was to convey a “concern for the local”. In other words, Lowry’s drawings can and should be seen as a counterpoint and companion to his paintings, which equally reveal Lowry’s interest and commitment towards capturing any aspect of the modern urban life, both before the Second World War and after.
If you're looking to sell art by L S Lowry, click the link and we can help. We employ a number of techniques and practices in order to give a realistic and achievable valuation on any art listed on myartbroker.com. We analyse the demand for the work in question, take into consideration previous sales and auction valuations, we assess the current gallery valuation and monitor the current deals taking place via MyArtBroker every day. We regularly advise sellers on a price bracket for their artwork completely free of charge.