L S Lowry - Portraits

L S Lowry is most famous for his paintings of the industrial landscape around the North of England. However, when looking through his portfolio on The Lowry Gallery website I came across the most intriguing portraits that I didn't know he had painted. We all know of the lonely, desolate self portraits he painted while he was looking after his dying mother - the Lighthouses.

Mark Hudson of the Telegraph says about Lowry's 1925 Self Portrait, "...seen against the development of his art as a whole, it is apparent that these are the highly conscious works of an artist who was well-versed in the art of his own time and the past." Lowry's portraits came about when he was unsure about himself and about his work. His other portraits in the Horrible Heads series were made when his mother was dying and all Lowry was doing at the time was caring for her and painting day and night. These tormented portraits are the paintings, for this project, that I am looking into.

Lowry self portrait 1925

head of a man

In comparison the the 1930's portrait, 'Head of a Man' is unflinching in its stare. The disheveled character looks tired and tormented channeling the artist's own feelings at the time.