Lowry Drawing Heads Modern & Contemporary Art Sale

A drawing by the inimitable L.S. Lowry from the end of his career, when his work cast a critical gaze over his fellow man, is coming up for sale in the Modern and Contemporary Art Sale at Tennants Auctioneers on 28^th February and will be offered with an estimate of £25,000-35,000 (all figures exclude buyer’s premium). Executed in pencil, “Children in a Crowd” dates from 1969 when Lowry’s drawings had become colder and more critical towards his subjects as he cast a satirical eye on his contemporaries and figures became almost objects of ridicule, in exaggeratedly ill-fitting clothes, shoes and hats. Lowry became interested in depicting, often with hostility, the relationships and interactions between small groups of figures, as can be seen in the present work. He had great difficulty in understanding how humans ever made deep connections with each other, and his drawings at this point in his life are possibly his way of trying to get to grips with the human relationships that he did not really understand in his own isolated life. The sale will also offer a large selection of signed colour reproductions of works after L.S. Lowry, led by a limited-edition Fine Art Trade Guild reproduction of “Going to the Match”, one of Lowry’s most famous paintings. The work is offered with an estimate of £20,000-30,000.

Over the years, many artists have been inspired by Lowry, and one of the most significant is Brian ‘Braaq’ Shields, whose “Royal Albert Hall” will be included in the same sale with an estimate of £8,000-12,000. Braaq is admired for the vivacity and humour of his work, and his ability to capture the spirit of the North. Braaq’s paintings are very much influenced by his childhood in Liverpool, and his family were of great inspiration to him.  Amongst further good lots of Northern Art in the sale are “Gate Posts” by Manchester-born Geoffrey Key (estimate: £3,000-4,000) and several works by James Lawrence Isherwood, including “Snow Upper Morris Street” (estimate: £400-600).

The sale also offers two private collections with provenance from the artists’ estates; the first is a group of thirty paintings by Wensleydale artist Piers Browne, who died in 2024. Filled with light and colour, the paintings depict both the artist’s beloved Dales landscapes and foreign climes. Notable amongst them is “Evening Sunburst over Wensleydale, at Haytime, from Whitfield Scar” (estimate: £700-1,000). There will also be a small collection of works by Paul Maze, an Anglo-French painter often known as “The last of the Post Impressionists". Highlights of the collection include Landscape with farm buildings (estimate: £200-300).

A good selection of prints in the sale includes signed etchings by David Hockney “Félicité sleeping, with Parrot” from 1974 (estimate: £2,000-3,000) and “He Enquired After the Quality” from “Fourteen Poems” by C.P. Cavafy (estimate: £800-1,200). There are also prints by the likes of Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Elizabeth Blackadder, as well as a selection of works by master-etcher Norman Ackroyd including his large-scale “St Kilda in Sunlight – Stac Lee” (estimate: £1,000-1,500). Finally, amongst the Contemporary Art in the sale is “With All My Love” by Los Angeles-based street artist Mr Brainwash, which is sold together with a certificate of authenticity with an estimate of £6,000-8,000.

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