L.S. Lowry RA 1887-1976

Bridge over Canal with Chimney, 1943

Oil on Canvas laid on Board
20 x 11½ ins (50.80 x 29.21 cms)
Signed and dated 1943

The painting also comes with a 12 x 11.5 inch pencil study drawn in 1943, This drawing has the same provenance and exhibition history as the oil. (cat no 147 in the 1976 RA Catalogue, A copy of the catalogue comes with the works.)

Price on application

Provenance

Acquired directly from the Artist through Andras Kalman in the 1950s by J.P. Jacobs Esq, and thence by descent to the previous owners.

Exhibition History

London, Royal Academy of Arts, L.S. Lowry, 4th September - 14th November 1976, cat. No.140, where lent by J.P. Jacobs.

Edinburgh, Scottish Arts Council, Scottish Arts Council Gallery, L.S. Lowry, December 1977 - January 1978, cat. no. 32, where lent by J.P. Jacobs, with tour to Wilton Lodge Museum, Hawick; Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen; Dundee Museum and Art Gallery, Dundee; Inverness Museum and Art Gallery, Inverness and Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth.

General Notes

Bridge over Canal with Chimney, 1943 depicts the top lock (Lock 18) at Fairfield on the Ashton Canal, which was completed in 1797 and joined Manchester with Ashton-under-Lyne. The left-hand lock is no longer in use. It would have been well known to Lowry, whose work was often based on familiar local places and believed that you should 'paint the place you know'. In this painting the main focus is the hump-back bridge, which was built high enough to allow horse-drawn barges laden with goods to pass under it. The bridge is called The Camel's Hump.


Lowry produced another similar oil painting of this lock in 1944, which is in the Jerwood Collection.