Some might say that Laurence Stephen Lowry only gained recognition for his works relatively late in his life. Indeed, it was in November 1938 that he was offered a one-man exhibition at the Reid and Lefevre Gallery in London, at the age of 51, thirty five years after he took up drawing.

Having been brought up into a typical Manchester Victorian family, with mis-matched parents and an unremarkable education, Lowry 'drifted' into office work at a Manchester firm of accountants. However, as with most young people looking for employment at the time, this was merely a way for him to earn money to survive. Lowry managed to save enough money to finance his hobby, to purchase materials and to take a few painting lessons under the tuition of Reginald Barber. Though Lowry sought tuition from German William Fitz, this was all the education in painting Lowry received until he started at art school in Manchester.

l "I've a one-track mind… I only deal with poverty…with gloom. I never do a jolly picture." Lowry

Perhaps the reason behind this stems from the fact that this was the sort of situation he grew up in - a working class, industrial background with poverty all around him. However, Lowry also concedes that he could not, no matter how much he tried, paint shadows. For this reason, all Lowry's work is false to a certain extent. This is shown in his 1943 oil on canvas piece 'July, the Seaside' (Right). A place where the sun supposedly always shines, the seaside, seems quite dull without it. In this piece, Lowry makes up for this lack of sun by purposely making the many people milling around a much darker colour than the sand that covers the ground.

'July, the seaside'

This brings me on to the fact that Lowry loved painting the sea. In his more Impressionist style, 'Fishing boats at Lytham' (Right, above), a pastel on paper from 1915 depicts the sea and the sky, fractured centrally by a procession of boats with their sails raised high on the masts. 'Sailing Boats' (Right, below), an oil on canvas painting is of similar composition which uses lighter colours. However, in both pieces, there is the notable omission of reflections in the water. This may link in with the fact that, as I have previously mentioned, Lowry could not draw shadows. However, his use of darker and lighter colours makes the boats stand out from the rest of the piece. In 'Fishing boats at Lytham', the sea and the sky are of a similar tone. Lowry distinguishes between them by using an amalgamation of horizontal marks of similar colour to represent the sea, and adds white swirls and flurries to represent the clouds in the sky.

'Fishing Boats at Lytham'

'Sailing Boats'

'Seascape' (Below left) from 1960 is a simple representation of the sea as seen from land. In it, Lowry has used the same technique as in 'Fishing Boats at Lytham' to depict the sky, but has laid down a series of thick, dark horizontal, wavy lines for the sea. Here, because of the difference between the two styles and shades of light blue, there is a clear horizon line. This is highlighted in the colour sketch I have produced (Below centre), as is the number of wavy lines used to represent the sea. Later, I will compare this piece to a similar painting by French Romanticist Delacroix.