L. S. Lowry

L. S. Lowry (1887 - 1976)

The British painter Laurence Stephen Lowry was born in Manchester. He studied painting and drawing at Manchester Municipal Art College between 1905 and 1915 and also studied at Salford School of Art. It was not until c.1916 that he developed an interest in the artistic possibilities of the bleak Northern industrial landscape, which he depicted in a 'naive' style outside of the general trends of his time. From 1909 until 1948 he lived and worked at Pendleberry; he was hardly known until his first one-man show in London in 1939. 

This lateness of recognition rankled long after he had achieved fame and fortune. By the end of his life Lowry was widely recognised as one of the leading British painters. At his best he went far deeper than the 'naive' tone of his work initially suggests (for example, An Accident, 1926; City of Manchester Art Gallery). There is a satiric edge to his imagination, an ambiguous fondness for the grotesque, a darkness at the centre of his vision (for example, In a Park, 1963; Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester).  

Text Source: A Biographical Dictionary of Artists (Macmillan)