Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist and was born in
Stretford, Lancashire. As he lived in Pendlebury for 40 years of his life, many
of his paintings and drawings depict areas and buildings from there. A lot of
his work also depicted Salford. He was famous for painting everyday life in the
industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. Because
he created so many paintings he developed a certain style and the people in his
paintings were then known as ‘matchstick men’. As well as painting landscapes
full of people, he also painted dark, mysterious and unpopulated areas and marionette
works, both of which were found after his death.
This is a landscape painting that is crammed full of people,
and looks like some sort of a festival or celebration of some sort. The sky and
the ground are both white, which feels and looks like snow to me. However, he
painted like this in all his paintings, so perhaps there was never any snow and
he just created a style where he did not try to paint the sky or the ground. In
the centre of the image you see a block of houses that are at different angles,
and have paper and string stuck up on the walls, definitely indicating some
sort of celebration. There are also people everywhere and this also gave me a
chance to see the famous ‘matchbook men’ effect. In the background there is a
huge hall of some sort, which is grey, and also has many people outside of it.
As you go further back in the image things tend to get faded out yet still has
the feeling that everyone is celebrating something, and it is not just in the
very front of the painting.
This painting is by LS Lowry and is showing
the market town of Manchester. I personally think this image looks a little
bland and desaturated, outside of the matchstick men, who are quite high in
saturation. You can see many people forming around the markets, indicating it is
probably a busy day in the market. There is a lot of colour yet also a lot of
white, which takes up most of the image.
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