LS LOWRY PRINT SALE | CLARENDON FINE ARTS
Huddersfield, 1973, offset lithograph, image supplied courtesy of Clarendon Fine Art
He painted matchstick men…
Paintings by the 20th-century painter LS Lowry are gaining in value: a recently discovered work entitled The Mill: Pendlebury sold for £2.3 at the Christie’s Modern British evening sale in January 2020.
But you can also buy his work at more affordable prices. In the 70s, the artist oversaw the reproduction of many of his most iconic paintings, in his signature palette of blacks, browns and greys, as limited edition offset lithographs on wove paper, which he signed in pencil. Clarendon Fine Art (Stand 37 at British Art Fair), have acquired a number of these prints, which they are exhibiting for sale over the weekend of August 20/21 in their gallery in Farnham, Surrey (also on their website).
Pendlebury, of course, was the industrial Lancashire town where he lived, and worked as a rent collector, for more than 40 years, until 1948. Another common setting for his paintings was Salford, Greater Manchester, where The Lowry Gallery has been based since 2000. The gallery displays a permanent exhibition of his work, which is free to enter.
Lowry died in 1976, and was immortalised in the catchy folk song ‘Matchstick Men and Matchstick Cats and Dogs’, a surprise number one hit for the duo Brian and Michael in April 1978, which, arguably, turned him into the best known (and best loved?) British artist of the 20th century. Although popular in his lifetime, and the winner of many awards and titles, including a turned-down knighthood in 1968, he would have been surprised at his posthumous explosion of fame. “I’m not an artist, I’m a man who paints,” he once said. “If people call me a Sunday painter, I’m a Sunday painter who paints every day of the week.”
If you’re interested in attending the show this weekend, please pre-register at the Clarendon Fine Art website.