An artwork by LS Lowry that had been unseen by the public since 1977, dubbed "Sunday Afternoon," sold for £6.29 million last Wednesday, March 20, exceeding its high estimate of £6 million. The sale was made in London at the Christie's "Modern British And Irish Art" sale.
A Momentous LS Lowry Sale
The auction house's Senior Director, Phillip Harley, told BBC that this recent sale of the Lowry work was an event that happens only "once in a generation."
It was first sold in 1967, which was record-breaking for the artist at the time, and was offered at the recent Christie's auction as part of an art collection owned by Sir Keith Showering, the former CEO of the biggest drink business in Europe, Allied Breweries.
Dated 1957, the painting depicts a heavily populated scene against the backdrop of Greater Manchester's industrial landscape, a variation of a prominent environmental motif in works within Lowry's expansive oeuvre.
According to the auction house's post on X (formerly Twitter), "Sunday Afternoon" is "one of only 13 large-scale industrial scenes painted by Lowry at the height of his career in the 1950s" and shows what the artist described as the "battle of life."
This could explain why it took the second seat in terms of the most expensive Lowry piece sold at auction, trailing behind his 1953 piece "Going To The Match," which fetched £7.84 million at a Christie's sale back in October 2022.
As per Harley, the entire composition of the artwork encapsulates the sense of "wonder" that Lowry felt well up inside him as he depicted an ever-evolving society around him.
In another lot within the Christie's sale, Dame Barbara Hepworth's oval-shaped sculpture similarly exceeded its high estimate, with the hammer falling at the £3.54 million mark.
Other works by the Wakefield-born artist also sold in the auction, read more about them here.
