LS LOWRY
And His Love for the Fylde By Margaret Brecknell
LS Lowry Statue at Mottram. Photo Credit: A Carty/CC BY-SA 3.0
Artist, LS Lowry, is famous for his urban landscapes, which depict life in the industrial heartlands of North-West England during the first half of the 20th century. Yet, he also produced some fine seascape and rural landscape paintings, many of which were inspired by the area around the Fylde coast which he visited throughout his life. 198
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aurence Stephen Lowry was born on 1st November 1887 and spent much of his childhood in the leafy Manchester suburb of Victoria Park. The artist was an only child and his early years do not appear to have been particularly happy. His mother, Elizabeth, had harboured ambitions of becoming a concert pianist, but ill health prevented her from doing so and she appears to have become an increasingly embittered woman, who took out her disappointment in life on her husband, Robert, and son. As a result, the young Lowry is said to have
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
been a shy and reserved child, who struggled to make friends at school. A fictionalised version of Lowry’s difficult relationship with his mother, which continued well into adulthood, was portrayed in the 2019 film, Mrs Lowry & Son. However, Lowry’s early years were not entirely bleak. The artist’s enduring affection for the Fylde coast stemmed from his childhood when he enjoyed family holidays in Lytham with his parents. He also appears to have had an interest in drawing from www.lancmag.com
