Sotheby's has estimated Laurence Stephen Lowry's "Beach Scene, Lancaster" to sell for around £1 million to £1.5 million in the upcoming auction later this month on Nov. 21 in London. The artwork, which belonged to a Canadian collection, will be accompanied by four other Lowry works, three of which are oil paintings.
Depicted with a charming sense of playful simplicity, Lowry's seaside landscape painting oozes life in its portrayal of the gleeful hustle and bustle. The 1947 artwork is a window through time into a typical English summer day at the beach.
With Lowry frequenting Lytham in his later years, its coastline probably inspired the painting.
April 1958: LS Lowry pictured in his home at Mottram-in-Longdendale, Cheshire. The artist stands by one of his famous images of 'matchstick men' hurriedly going about their daily business.
How the LS Lowry Painting Made its Way Into a Sotheby's Auction
As reported by The Guardian, Sotheby's head of modern British art, André Zlattinger, explains that the seaside piece was originally part of a 1952 exhibition featuring works by contemporary British artists, held at the Whitechapel Gallery in London.
In the following year after the exhibition, the artwork was also shown in an art display organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain. In 1955 it was bought by Canadian media mogul Lord Beaverbrook who, in 1959, donated it to an art gallery he financed.
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery eventually announced that it was selling the piece.
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LS Lowry's Love for the Sea is Shown in the 'Beach Scene, Lancaster'
Although Lowry is well-known for his vivid depictions of day-to-day life within the industrial townships of Northern England, his colorful interpretation of seaside scenery is equally as notable.
The "Beach Scene, Lancaster" in particular is an excellent advocate for LS Lowry's masterful utilization of a limited color palette. For this piece, only five colors were used: flake white, ivory black, vermilion red, Prussian blue, and yellow ochre.
Most importantly the sea was a lifelong source of inspiration for Lowry. In fact, some of his earliest works as a child were those of little ships, a subject that headlines the seaside painting in various beautiful iterations. This portrayal definitely reveals Lowry's great fondness for differing varieties of ships.
'I'm very fond of ships. The sea, too, I love. To watch it is like letting off steam: it's so vast," shared Lowry in an artist study by Michael Leber & Judy Sandling.
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