Name: The Pond
Brand: L S Lowry
Rating: 5 (236 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of L S Lowry’s The Pond (signed) is estimated to be worth between £2,650 and £4,000. This lithograph print, created in 1974, has shown consistent value growth. Over the past 12 months, the artwork has sold 9 times, with an average selling price of £1,927. The hammer price over the last five years has ranged from £1,300 in May 2023 to £5,500 in October 2020. The average annual growth rate of this work is -7%. This artwork has an auction history of 59 total sales since its entry to the market in March 2005. The edition size of this piece is limited to 850.

Meaning & Analysis

The Pond is a quintessential example of one of Lowry’s urban landscapes. The composition includes many of the typical Lowryan elements such as smoke rising from factories and chimneys, houses with little balconies and a mass of his matchstick figures scurrying across the urban scene and public space. Lowry was interested in mapping the effects of the Industrial Revolution on the changing face of Victorian England, however through highlighting the darker side of this progress in terms of the constant fatigue and psychological pressure that comes with such an acceleration of all aspects of life and work. In fact, the artist himself considered The Pond to be his best industrial landscape. In his own words in a letter written in 1956: “This is a composite picture built up from a blank canvas. I hadn’t the slightest idea of what I was going to put in the canvas when I started the picture, but it eventually came out as you see it. This is the way I like working best”.