Why are Lowry’s Lake Views, Sea Views and Seascapes important?

Lowry's seascapes vary notably in production. While some are characterised by highly realistic depictions, others are striking in their lack of details and abstraction. Oftentimes, these latter are also recognisable by a more colourful and vivid palette, which differs from the monotone and darker tones typical of his production - the artist always claimed to only use a five colours palette made by vermillion, ivory black, Prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white. Many scholars now agree in saying that when he did engage in this type of schematic representations of the ocean, Lowry seamlessly blended and blurred the horizon line, to the point where it becomes difficult to distinguish where the water ends and the sky begins. As the Head of Modern and British Art at Christie’s London Alice Murray claimed in relation to these pictures, these depictions are so empty they often border on abstract art.

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How can I sell a Lake View, Sea View or Seascape?

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Lakeside, Sea Views and Seascapes by L S Lowry Background & Meaning

Lakeside,
Sea Views and Seascapes

L.S Lowry’s Lakeside, Seaviews and Seascapes take his art into a new setting. Lowry’s seascapes were inspired by his childhood visits to the seaside in North Wales. Lowry spoke about his fascination with the sea’s turbulence and impassivity— qualities which he harnessed in all his paintings, and oddly, particularly his cityscapes.

Meaning & Analysis

L.S Lowry’s Lakeside, Seaviews and Seascapes prints place his typically bustling, industrial urban compositions in a new setting. While Lowry’s long-lasting desire of living by the sea never became a reality, the artist nevertheless dedicated himself to portraying peaceful and quaint seascapes throughout most of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

The artist claimed he had always been fascinated by the sea, his first visits to the seaside having been to Rhyl in North Wales when he was a young boy on holiday with his family. Concerning this love and fascination, he remembered: "It's the battle of life – the turbulence of the sea ... I have been fond of the sea all my life, how wonderful it is, yet how terrible it is. But I often think ... what if it suddenly changed its mind and didn't turn the tide? And came straight on? If it didn't stay and came on and on and on and on ... That would be the end of it all.”

Lowry's seascapes vary notably in production. While some are characterised by highly realistic depictions, others are striking in their lack of details and abstraction. Oftentimes, these latter are also recognisable by a more colourful and vivid palette, which differs from the monotone and darker tones typical of his production - the artist always claimed to only use a five colours palette made by vermillion, ivory black, Prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white. Many scholars now agree in saying that when he did engage in this type of schematic representations of the ocean, Lowry seamlessly blended and blurred the horizon line, to the point where it becomes difficult to distinguish where the water ends and the sky begins. As the Head of Modern and British Art at Christie’s London Alice Murray claimed in relation to these pictures, these depictions are so empty they often border on abstract art.
His more detailed representations, instead, focus on depicting blissful moments of leisure by the sea or by lakes, the composition densely populated by crowds of matchstick men enjoying their free time, as in his Crime Lake. If his highly schematic but colourful representations of the ocean verged on abstract art, these paintings are close in subject matter to Impressionism, resonating with works like The Beach at Trouville by Monet, who often indulged in peaceful and quaint representations of walks by the beach, while also sharing a darker colour palette that instantly distinguishes them as Lowryesque artworks.
Thus, Lowry’s production here takes a more personal and perhaps nostalgic note, the paintings being the means through which the artist reminisced about his peaceful family holidays. These artworks have however become rare collector’s pieces due to their limitedness in number. Opposing the grim and eerie ambience of his industrial scenes, these paintings evoke the peacefulness and tranquillity resulting from escaping the urban environment, a serene moment of escapism and light-heartedness also reflective of the PostWar optimism which undoubtedly impacted Lowry’s life and which the artist was committed to visually crystallise in time.
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.