I love Lowry’s works and his painting Sunday Afternoon painted in 1957 comes up for auction at Christies on the 20th March. As mad as a March hare I would love to be a steward of the painting above which is expected to fetch anywhere up to £6m.
I so much like the painting of this industrial landscape of northern England and you can feel that Sunday afternoon feeling. Church attended the workers day off , to and fro , speakers corners crying hell and damnation. Factories burning, smoke billowing that never ending grind of profit, and relentless drain of human strength for the Friday wage packet , the pints of beer and her indoors. The tin bath in front of flaming fire, the outside toilet where later generations would barbecue. The Sunday roast and wearing Sunday best , the romance and new loves born, the stoop of old age and the life era unraveling. This is the Sunday afternoon and for once not raining as umbrellas are missing and we can see all the kissing.
As a youngster I feared Sunday afternoon the day seemed to drop off after church and roast as we approached tea time , Mum’s plain cake , sponge of grunge and the fear of school tomorrow. That evening of nothing that vacuum to be filled. As adult the fear came with me the return to the battlefield of business and unable to see the unknown yet knowing the enemies were out there.
Lowry shows us life in this painting time off , time out but the Constant of production and with it the expectation of more. Nothing standstill, nothing is real rest but the permanent rest to come. Yet there is hope , hope for change and the prospect of better days as promised at Chapel , Church and Community earlier that day when all days would be Sunday. I love Lowry and Timothy Spall wonderfully played him in the movie of that name. Lowry died in 1976 and described the painting as ‘ the battle of life ‘. I get that.
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