L.S. Lowry RA 1887-1976

Lake Scene - Buttermere, 1960

Pencil drawing
5 x 6¾ ins (12.70 x 17.15 cms)
Signed and dated

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Provenance

Private Collection
Christies Sale 6th Nov 1998
Private Collection
Henry Donn Gallery
Private Collection

Literature

The Drawings of L.S. Lowry, Public and Private by Mervyn Levy. Jupiter Books, 1976. Illustrated on page 136.

General Notes

Lowry has written on the back of the drawing: " Drawing of Buttermere after a most delightful day. L.S. Lowry. 18 September 1960".

Lowry would have produced this sketch on one his many trips to the Lake District to visit the Cumbrian artist Sheila Fell. (1931-1979) Ever since he first discovered her at her first solo exhibition in London in the 1950s, he had taken holidays with her parents, Jack and Ann Fell in their terraced cottage in the small town of Aspatria, Cumberland.

During these visits Lowry would hire a car and they would both go out into the Cumbrian fells on one of their regular painting expeditions. However, Lowry didn't always draw what he saw on these trips. On one occasion in late summer 1960, (the year Lake Scene was produced) they settled down facing the fells under the rim of Skiddaw's summit. Sheila Fell made drawings of the landscape in front to of her but when she looked over to Lowry, she saw that he had drawn an industrial landscape entirely from his imagination.

Lowry considered Fell to be the finest landscape painter of the century and would end up owning 20 of her paintings. He supported and encouraged her right up to his death in 1976.