L. S. Lowry was one of the greatest of British artists. I remember having a Lowry print on my wall as a student. His painting style has been criticised and mocked in a famous song of ‘matchstalk men & matchstalk cats and dogs’. However, I believe, his industrial landscapes and figurative works are unchallenged. Stand in front of a Lowry painting of the north of England and you will be transported there, such is his power of representation. So I was interested to hear of a painting coming up for auction, not of a random northern scene, which the artist specialised in, but of a specific location.
Senhouse Street, Maryport is a delightful study of one of the well known views of that coal mining and maritime town in Cumberland. The perspective is exquisite and I love the colours of the buildings. The figures are typical of Lowry but next time you are in a town looking down the street, squint your eyes and consider what you see. The figures will not be unlike those that Lowry saw. Interestingly the Queens Head in the foreground became a maritime museum and is now the Shipping Brow Art Gallery.
The print of the river scene, I bought in 1974, cost me £1, which stretched my student budget. I will need to find about a £1m if I am to bid for this picture of Senhouse Street at Christie’s when it comes up for sale!
White Box Art Channel 
I always love a Lowery picture they are so unique we have a black and white sketch somewhere? S xx
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Indeed we do. It is a drawing of Earth Pit Colliery. Gordon.
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I have confess that I did not know this British artist, who I found very interesting. So I thank you very much for writing about him
I wish you a pleasant weekend 🙏❣️🙏
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Thank you. It’s as wet in England as Lake Como. Lowry is particularly colloquial to England!
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Dear Gordon and Susie, you are right, it continues to rain here too.
I am no longer at the lake but I returned home and I realized that summer has suddenly and definitively ended ❣️💞❣️
Wishing you a lovely weekend
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Hi Gordon, enjoy your posts and minded to comment on this one because of a (very) tenuous connection with both Maryport and Lowry. Visited Maryport from Braithwaite in the Lakes for the first time about a year ago. Beautiful views across the Solway Firth to Dumfriesshire from the roman museum. Lowry: In the early eighties I was a bell-ringer at Manchester Cathedral and Canon Morgan (CM) was the Cathedral official who liaised with us. We were paid 50 pence a quarter or per annum (don’t remember which) , a figure unchanged for over a century. CM invited us bell-ringers at Christmas to his house in Didsbury. The house was a revelation because it contained a great number of original paintings including a number by Lowry. It turned out he got to know Lowry when he, CM, was a curate in Salford many years ago and had either been given or bought pictures from him. He also christened my daughter Helen in the Regimental Chapel at Manchester Cathedral. His art collection was auctioned in London at Sothebys or Christie’s after his death.
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Thank you. It is great and moving when these opportunities present themselves. There are so many great works of art in peoples houses. It is good when they end up in museums to be enjoyed by all though.
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the painting is of “shipping brow”, going up from the harbour. your contemporary photo is taken from the other end of the street where the road meets the A596 in the town. alan bateman
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Thanks for that. I thought it was but the view with all the street furniture was just too tempting!
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