Norman Foster on 'A Lancashire Village' by L.S. Lowry
‘I first fell under the spell of Lowry’s paintings as a teenager, when I had to prepare a portfolio for entry to university to study architecture. I remember doing a work in gouache in his style – in retrospect, it was highly derivative. I have since realised that, uniquely, he summed up the gritty urbanity of the industrial North with its factories, back-to-back housing and conspicuous absence of Nature. But these are not the “dark satanic mills” of the new industrial cities invoked by Blake in the words to Jerusalem. On the contrary, there is a dour humour in his stick-like figures, reminiscent of Alberto Giacometti. This painting hangs in our bedroom and is a treasured birthday present from my wife, as a constant reminder of our love and my personal roots in industrial Manchester.’
Lord Foster of Thames Bank is a multi-award winning architect.
Charlotte Mullins comments on 'A Lancashire Village'
Works by L. S. Lowry are instantly recognisable: grey skies, industrial landscape, anonymous figures, all painted in a flat faux-naïf style. He honed his skills over two decades of night classes, paying for lessons by working as a rent collector in Manchester. This painting dates from 1920, when he was still studying, but it bears all the hallmarks of his mature style. Lowry began by sketching scenes such as this outdoors, but, from 1910, he only painted indoors, in his workroom (his studio) at home. He possessed a strong work ethic, maintaining his job as a rent collector for 42 years and painting throughout.
His name has become synonymous with 20th-century industrial Lancashire. Here, he uses horizontals to divide the painting into different grey bands. There’s a biting wind blowing through the cloudy sky, catching the smoke from the chimneys and sending it sharply to the right. The factories dominate the skyline; a row of terraced houses is ranged in front. Tonally, there is no change between the street in the foreground and the land beyond, no grass or trees, nothing to raise the spirits.
The year after A Lancashire Village was completed, he took part in a small group exhibition in Manchester, and his former tutor, Bernard Taylor, art critic for The Guardian, wrote that Lowry ‘may make a real contribution to art’. Success was slow coming — he didn’t sell a painting for many years — but, after his first solo show in London in 1939, he became increasingly famous and sought after.
Norman Foster on the Country Life podcast: 'The Green Belt is one of our greatest inventions'
Lord Norman Foster, one of Britain's great architects, joins the Country Life podcast.
-
Six rural properties with space, charm and endless views, as seen in Country LifeWe take a look at some of the best houses to come to the market via Country Life in the past week.
-
Exploring the countryside is essential for our wellbeing, but Right to Roam is going backwardsCampaigners in England often point to Scotland as an example of how brilliantly Right to Roam works, but it's not all it's cracked up to be, says Patrick Galbraith.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
