LS Lowry drawings come to auction in North Yorkshire

Tennants Auctioneers will be selling two drawings by LS Lowry, one of Britain's most celebrated artists from the 20th century - known paintings of "matchstick men" in industrial towns in the North of England - on 4th March.

The two drawings come from opposite ends of the lauded artist's career, with much of his inspiration in his later years coming from the North East coastline.

"The Stepped Street", comes from the period shortly after Lowry had finished art school, and depicts a street scene in Stockport that's full of life in the style he became known for.

Read more: Lowry’s long love affair with the North-East

Men with hands in pockets, smoke coming from chimneys and the simple, 'naive' style that became Lowry's trademark are all present in the charcoal drawing from 1929. It's estimated that it will achieve a buying price of between £50,000 and £80,000 when it goes under the hammer.

Lowry's painting of the River Wear at Sunderland. (Image: LS Lowry)

Lowry eventually moved from the smoggy mill towns of Lancashire to a leafy village in Cheshire, and while there he couldn't find the inspiration to draw or paint until a chance visit to the North East changed his inspirational fortunes.

“One day I was travelling south from Tyneside and I realised that this was what I had always been looking for”, he said at the time of how he began a love affair with Sunderland that lasted until his death.

Staying for long periods of time at the Seaburn Hotel in Sunderland, always in the same room overlooking the North Sea, Lowry would make charcoal sketches on whatever items he had to hand - serviettes, envelopes and so on - and then gift them to people he met.

Dating from 1965, his sketch "The Sea" depicts the view from his hotel room onto the grey sea and grey sky.

While known for his busy industrial landscapes, Lowry was frequently inspired by the sea, and these rare, seemingly simple yet highly sophisticated works hold a simplicity clearly derived from his first art teacher, the French impressionist Pierre Adolphe Valette.

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This second drawing is expected to sell at auction for between £12,000 and £18,000.

Both works will be on display in Tennants' Leyburn Salerooms on 2nd and 3rd March before their sale takes place on 4th March.