Ship Entering Harbour 1960
Pencil
24 x 34 cm
Sold [June 2007] for £20,400 including premium
Signed and Dated 'L S Lowry 1960' (lower right)
Provenance
with The Lefevre Gallery, London, 1974, where purchased by the present owner
'The heavy ships that populate Lowry's later paintings and drawings move through the implacable waters with no apparent sign of human involvement; there is never a glimpse of figures working the vessels, which seem to move of their own mysterious accord [...] Ships and boats are more than mere carriers of cargo, they are loaded with a host of romantic associations encapsulating our understanding of life and death. Accordingly, at least one commentator has compared Lowry's painted vessels with Charon's barque that in Greek mythology and in Dante's Inferno takes the souls of the dead across the River Styx. This is no far-fetched analogy, for the artist himself referred to his feelings of mortality on viewing a large ship enter port, considering such events as rehearsals for the inevitable arrival of his own hearse.' (Michael Howard, Lowry: A Visionary Artist, Lowry Press, 2000, pp.234-235)
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