| Coming from the Mill | |
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| Artist | Laurence Stephen Lowry |
| Year | 1930 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Movement | Naïve art |
| Subject | Human figures in front of a composite landscape of textile mills in Pendlebury |
| Dimensions | 42 cm× 52 cm(17 in× 20 in) |
| Location | The Lowry, Salford |
| Accession | 1941-8 |
Coming from the Mill is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1930 by British painter Laurence Stephen Lowry.
Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887–1976) often painted his surroundings in Pendlebury, Lancashire in the United Kingdom, where he lived and worked for more than 40 years. His fame lies in images from the industrial districts in the northwest of England from the mid-1900s. He developed a painting style of cityscapes with people, often described as "matchstick men". He also painted mysterious unpopulated landscapes and discordant portraits.
He is sometimes referred to as naïvist and often got to hear, to his annoyance, that he was a self-taught amateur "Sunday painter". [1]
Coming from the Mill shows workers going home from a factory after the end of their shift. The human figures are painted in Lowry's characteristic style of "matchstick figures", filing out through the factory gates in large numbers. In the foreground, a horse-drawn carriage and a handcart are visible on the street in front of a row of terraced houses, and large cotton mill buildings and factory chimneys loom in the background, above a distant church steeple. [2]
| External videos | |
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 The Lowry video about Coming from the Mill [3] |
Coming from the Mill does not depict a real factory, but rather a composite scene consisting of individual buildings with real details from Lowry's imagination. Lowry based many of his paintings on the industrial landscape of Pendlebury, Salford, where he lived for part of his early life. Lowry recalled an inspirational moment at Pendlebury railway station: "One day I missed a train from Pendlebury – [a place] I had ignored for seven years – and as I left the station I saw the Acme Spinning Company's mill… The huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows standing up against the sad, damp charged afternoon sky. The mill was turning out… I watched this scene – which I'd looked at many times without seeing – with rapture…" This experience led Lowry to incorporate elements of local textile mills and factory chimneys into many of his works, and elements of the Acme Mill can be seen in Coming from the Mill. [4] [5]
Lowry created an early pastel and pencil sketch of Coming from the Mill around 1917–18. Although recognisably the same scene, differences with his 1930 painting are evident; his refinements to the composition include the addition of a church steeple and the removal of a brewery tower in the background. [6] This 1917 drawing is noted as one of Lowry's earliest mill scenes. [7] Lowry re-used this composition in a 1928 painting, Coming Home from the Mill, which is now in the collection of the Manchester Art Gallery. [8]
The 1930 version of Coming from the Mill, painted some 13 years later, is evidence of a change in Lowry's use of light. Writing in the Manchester Guardian , his former tutor at the Salford School of Art, Bernard D. Taylor, criticised Lowry's paintings for being too dark. Taylor's criticism led Lowry to make greater use of light backgrounds such as that used in his 1930 reworking of Coming from the Mill. [9] [10] [11]
The 1930 Coming from the Mill is noted for Lowry's subtle use of colour, with mixes of yellow ochre and vermilion blended to incorporate hues of peach, dusky reds and rose pinks. The dark colours used to depict the human figures contrast sharply with the off-white background, and the large, dark blocks of the mill buildings looming in the background have been likened to the wings of a theatre stage, framing the scene. [12] Raking light analysis also reveals Lowry's technique of using a knife to cut into the paint surface to create a sense of luminescence and to increases the contrast between individual elements and the background. The horse-drawn vehicles in the foreground of both versions of Coming from the Mill show the influence of his tutor at the Manchester School of Art, Pierre Adolphe Valette. [13] [11]
Coming from the Mill was bought from the artist by Salford Museum and Art Gallery in 1941. In a letter to the gallery Lowry wrote, "It gives me great pleasure that Salford have bought this picture for I have always thought it was my most characteristic mill scene." With the opening of The Lowry at Salford Quays, Coming from the Mill – along with the gallery's entire collection of Lowry works – was transferred to the new art centre. [14]
Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Greater Manchester as well as Salford and its vicinity.
Salford, also known as the City of Salford, is a metropolitan borough with city status in Greater Manchester, England. The borough is named after its main settlement, Salford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton, Walkden and Pendlebury. The borough had a population of 278,064 in 2022, and is administered from the Salford Civic Centre in Swinton.
Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester, opened to the public in November 1850 as the Royal Museum and Public Library. The gallery and museum are devoted to the history of Salford and Victorian art and architecture.
Pendlebury is a town in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 13,069. It lies 4 miles (6 km) north-west of Manchester, 3 miles (5 km) north-west of Salford and 6 miles (10 km) south-east of Bolton.
Arthur McEvoy Delaney was an English painter whose scenes of Manchester life were influenced by those of L. S. Lowry, gaining some popularity since his death.
The Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex at Salford Quays, Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is named after the early 20th-century painter L. S. Lowry, known for his paintings of industrial scenes in North West England. The complex opened on 28 April 2000 and was officially opened on 12 October 2000 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Burnden is a district in the town of Bolton in Greater Manchester, England. It is located about 1 mile (2 km) southeast of Bolton town centre.
Pendlebury railway station was a station serving the town of Pendlebury in the City of Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It was closed in 1960 by British Railways.
Harold Francis Riley, DL was an English artist. He sold his first painting to the Salford Museum and Art Gallery when he was 11.
Liam Spencer is a British artist.
Peel Park is a public urban park in Salford, Greater Manchester, England, located on the flood plain of the River Irwell below Salford Crescent and adjacent to the University of Salford. It was the first of three public parks to be opened on 22 August 1846, for the people of Manchester and Salford, paid for by public subscription. The park was the main public venue for the 1851 royal visit of Queen Victoria to Manchester and Salford and has been the subject of a number of paintings by the Salford artist, L.S. Lowry.
"Matchstalk Men and Matchstalk Cats and Dogs (Lowry's Song)" is a folk song by English duo Brian and Michael. It was released as their first single in late 1977 on Pye Records, and is from their 1978 debut album, The Matchstalk Men. The song reached number one on the UK Singles Chart for 3 weeks in April 1978. As the song is their only major hit, the duo remain as one-hit wonders in the UK, although one more single titled "Mama" briefly made the UK charts at No. 93 in 1983.
Portrait of Ann (1957) is a painting by British artist L. S. Lowry (1887–1976). Opinion remains divided as to the identity of the subject, who appears in many of Lowry's works, and her significance for the artist.
Shirley Baker was a British photographer, best known for her street photography and street portraits in working class areas of Greater Manchester. She worked as a freelance writer and photographer on various magazines, books and newspapers, and as a lecturer on photography. Most of her photography was made for her personal interest but she undertook occasional commissions.
Theodore Major was an English artist who was considered a great individualist of British Art
Geoffrey Key is a British painter and sculptor. A number of public art collections have examples of his work.
Piccadilly Gardens is a 1954 oil painting by the English artist L. S. Lowry. It depicts Piccadilly Gardens, a large garden square in Manchester city centre, north-west England. The painting hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery on nearby Mosley Street.
Going to Work is a 1943 oil painting by the English artist L. S. Lowry.
Industrial Landscape is the title given to each of a series of oil paintings by the English artist L. S. Lowry, painted over a number of years between 1934 and 1955.
Going to the Match is the title of a number of paintings by British painter L. S. Lowry, depicting crowds of spectators walking towards a sports ground. Lowry's best known Going to the Match painting is his 1953 painting of football fans heading towards Burnden Park, the then home of Bolton Wanderers Football Club. Two earlier works of this title also exist; a 1928 painting depicting fans outside a rugby ground, and a 1946 painting of a crowd of sports fans.
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