Forgotten Lowry could sell for more than £1m at auction
A PAINTING by LS Lowry which hasn’t been seen in public before is expected to sell for £1m or more at auction.
Titled ‘The Mill, Pendlebury’, the work is from the estate of Manchester-born medical researcher Dr Leonard D. Hamilton, who played a key role in the discovery of the structure of DNA.
He hung the painting in his room when he was studying at Oxford University.
Until now, no one apart from Dr Hamilton, his friends who saw the work, and his family, knew of its existence.
The painting, which depicts mill workers in Salford enjoying a day off and children playing cricket, is being offered at auction by Christie’s in the New Year.
The work has a guide price of between £700,000 to £1 million.
It could, however, fetch far more.
The most valuable Lowrys are ‘The Football Match’ and ‘Piccadilly Circus’, which both went for £5.6m at auction.
Lowry was born in 1887 at Barrett Street, Stretford. In his early years he lived in Victoria Park, Rusholme.
Stretched finances however forced his family to move to Pendlebury in 1909 when he was 22. The factories and chimneys on his doorstep were the inspiration for his paintings - as shown in the ‘The Mill, Pendlebury’.
It’s been described by the auction house as a ‘powerful example of the industrial landscapes that dominated the artist’s oeuvre throughout his career’.
The large square building at the end of the row of terraces is believed to be the Acme Spinning Company Mill in Pendlebury, which in 1916, inspired Lowry to paint his first industrial scene.
The painting will go under the hammer at the Modern British Art Evening Auction at Christie’s on January 21.