Biography

Laurence Stephen Lowry (1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist, famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of Northwest England in the mid-20th century, mainly depicting Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity. He developed a distinctive style of painting peopled with human figures, often referred to as 'matchstick men':

“All I do, as I said before, is I paint the figures as I see them. They may be like matchsticks, they be like anyway you like, but I just do them as I like to see them”.

Lowry used his paintings as a form of self-discovery, therapy and understanding of the human nature. His complex nature is key to his stylistic figurines, in which one sees a sort of extended self-portraiture.

Although best known for his mill scenes and industrial landscapes, Lowry’s work covers a wide range of themes and subjects, from landscapes and seascapes to portraits and surreal imaginings. He painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes, troubled and gloomy portraits, as well as the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only discovered after his death in 1976.