Going to the Match

Last updated

Going to the Match
Going to the Match - L S Lowry.jpg
Artist L. S. Lowry
Year1953
Medium Oil on canvas
Movement Naïve art
Dimensions71 cm× 91.5 cm(28 in× 36.0 in)
Location The Lowry, Salford
AccessionLOL084

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. [1] 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.

Contents

In 2021 the 1928 painting was valued at between £2 and £3 million and is now in a private collection. Lowry's 1953 Going to the Match was on loan to The Lowry arts centre in Salford between 2012 and 2022, and was sold at auction for £7.8 million in 2022.

Description

Going to the Match (1928)

External videos
Oldham rlfc 1898.jpg
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Video: Lowry’s Rare Rugby Painting is More Poignant Than Ever - Frances Christie explores the importance of Rugby League in Northern culture

L. S. Lowry's 1928 painting Going to the Match (oil on canvas, 42.5 × 53.3cm) [2] depicts a crowd of rugby league fans walking left to right across the canvas to a rugby match. The goal posts of the rugby pitch can be seen in the background to the left, and behind the crowd are industrial buildings, a smoking factory chimney and a church. It is one of Lowry's earliest depictions of sporting events and representative of Lowry's understanding of the importance of rugby league to the communities of Northern England. It is also one of only two known depictions of rugby supporters by Lowry, the other, Coming from the Match, was painted in 1959. [3] [4]

The closest rugby league teams to Lowry's home in Pendlebury was Swinton; it is thought that the blue and red scarves worn by different people in the crowd and the red flag flying by the rugby ground indicate that this was a match played by Swinton against Salford. The 1928 painting was displayed in the UK for the first time since 1966, at a 2012 exhibition in The Lowry, before being auctioned at Sotheby's, estimated at between £2 million and £3 million. It is now in a private collection. [3] [4] [5]

Going to the Match (1946)

Another work by Lowry, Going to the Match (oil on panel 28 x 49.5 cm), dates from 1946. This work is in a private collection and was on long-term loan to The Lowry from 2012 to 2022. [6]

Going to the Match (1953)

Going to the Match (1953) depicts a large crowd of football supporters flocking towards the Burnden Park football stadium in Burnden, Bolton, in Lancashire (today within Greater Manchester), the home of Bolton Wanderers F.C. until 1999. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] Within the stadium, crowds already fill the stands in anticipation of a football match. In the distance can be seen rows of terraced houses and smoking factory chimneys. [14]

The painting originally bore the title The Football Match before it was renamed. While the distant industrial buildings in this painting are an invented, generic scene (comparable with Lowry's many other Industrial Landscape paintings), the football ground is identifiably Burnden Park. Lowry was a football fan who supported Manchester City F.C., and he lived in Pendlebury, just 6 miles (9.7 km) miles from the Bolton Wanderers ground. Lowry appreciated football as a significant aspect of working men's culture in the North of England. [14]

Lowry acknowledged that the 16th-century Netherlandish master Pieter Bruegel the Elder had influenced his work, and Lowry's distant, elevated viewpoint evident in this painting has been compared to Bruegel's Procession to Calvary (1564). The painting has been acclaimed as a "Brueghel-like vision of a vanished England" as it "documents an industrial milieu that has all but disappeared", depicting "a moment of colour and joy in the lives of hard-pressed workers". [15]

History

External videos
Lowry-gallery-interior-2.jpg
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg Video about Lowry's Going to the Match works on display in The Lowry

Going To The Match (1953) was first exhibited at the Lefevre Gallery in October 1953, where it received critical acclaim. In June 1959, the painting was included in a Lowry retrospective exhibition at Manchester City Art Gallery, where critics praised the artist's representation of moving crowds. Writing in The Manchester Guardian , Eric Newton described how "two streams of spectators cross each other diagonally as though they had been drilled by a master of choreography", while a critic in The Times critic described the figures in the crowds as "almost like comic insects each advancing through different streams [...] most beautifully blended into a single, ever-moving pattern". [16]

In 1999 Going to the Match (1953) was sold at auction at Sotheby's for a record £1,926,500, the highest auction price ever fetched by a modern British artwork at the time. It was bought by the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA), whose chief executive Gordon Taylor has once played for Bolton Wanderers at Burnden Park. Taylor stated, "We were determined to buy it for football because it is quite simply the finest football painting ever." The painting was loaned to Salford Museum and Art Gallery and later moved to public display at The Lowry arts centre in Salford. [8] [17] [18]

In 2022 Going to the Match (1953) was purchased by The Lowry at auction, at Christie's in London, for £7.8 million with financial support from the Law Family charitable foundation. The 1928 painting was valued at between £2 and £3 million in 2021. [8] [19] [20]

Going to the Match (1953) featured in a retrospective exhibition at Tate Britain in 2013. [15] [21] In 2024 the painting will be shown in a touring exhibition which includes Gallery Oldham, the Grundy Art Gallery in Blackpool, the Williamson Art Gallery and Museum in Birkenhead, the National Football Museum in Manchester (for community engagement groups only), and Bury Art Museum. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">L. S. Lowry</span> British visual artist (1887–1976)

Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Greater Manchester as well as Salford and its vicinity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolton Wanderers F.C.</span> Association football club in Bolton, England

Bolton Wanderers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in League One, the third level of the English football league system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City of Salford</span> Borough and City in Greater Manchester, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salford Red Devils</span> British professional rugby league football club

The Salford Red Devils are a professional rugby league club in Barton upon Irwell, Salford, England. They play home games at Salford Community Stadium and compete in Super League, the top tier of British rugby league.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salford Museum and Art Gallery</span> Art gallery and museum in Salford, England, United Kingdom

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendlebury</span> Town in Greater Manchester, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnden Park</span> Former football stadium in Bolton. UK

Burnden Park was the home of English football club Bolton Wanderers, who played home games there between 1895 and 1997. As well as hosting the 1901 FA Cup final replay, in 1946 it was the scene of one of the worst disasters in English football. The stadium was depicted in a 1953 painting by L. S. Lowry, Going to the Match.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pierre Adolphe Valette</span> French Impressionist painter

Pierre Adolphe Valette was a French Impressionist painter who spent most of his career in England. His most acclaimed paintings are urban landscapes of Manchester, now in the collection of Manchester Art Gallery. Today, he is chiefly remembered as L. S. Lowry's tutor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lowry</span> Arts centre in Salford, England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnden</span> Human settlement in England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pendlebury railway station</span> Former railway station in England

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burnden Park disaster</span> 1946 crowd crush during a football game in Lancashire, England

The Burnden Park disaster was a crowd crush that occurred on 9 March 1946 at Burnden Park football stadium, then the home of Bolton Wanderers. The crush resulted in the deaths of 33 people and injuries to hundreds of Bolton fans. It was the deadliest stadium-related disaster in British history until the Ibrox Park disaster in 1971.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peel Park, Salford</span> Urban park in Greater Manchester, England

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.

<i>Portrait of Ann</i> 1957 painting by L. S. Lowry

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.

Andrew Eric Law is a British financier, hedge fund manager and philanthropist. He is the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and major shareholder of Caxton Associates, a hedge fund headquartered on Berkeley Square in London. He is a major donor to the Conservative Party.

<i>Coming from the Mill</i> 1930 painting by Laurence Stephen Lowry

Coming from the Mill is an oil-on-canvas painting created in 1930 by British painter Laurence Stephen Lowry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Luke Bolton</span> English footballer (born 1999)

Luke Philip Bolton is an English professional footballer who plays as a winger and full-back for EFL League One club Wrexham.

<i>Piccadilly Gardens</i> (painting) 1954 painting by L. S. Lowry

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.

<i>Going to Work</i> 1954 painting by L. S. Lowry

Going to Work is a 1943 oil painting by the English artist L. S. Lowry.

<i>Industrial Landscape</i> 1954 painting by 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.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ "Lowry £7.8m painting to go on regional tour". BBC News. 21 November 2023. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  2. ↑ Howard 2000, p. 222.
  3. 1 2 "The earliest known sports painting by LS Lowry set to go on view | Latest News". thelowry.com. The Lowry. 1 June 2021. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  4. 1 2 "Going to the Match | British Art Evening Sale: Modern/Contemporary | 2021". sothebys.com. Sotheby's. Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  5. ↑ Gregory, Luke (4 May 2021). "Lowry painting with Salford rugby league connections expected to fetch £3m at auction". Salford Now. Archived from the original on 23 January 2024. Retrieved 23 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY, R.A. (1887-1976) Going to the Match". Archived from the original on 22 January 2024. Retrieved 22 January 2024.
  7. ↑ "'It's our Mona Lisa': L.S. Lowry's 'Going to the Match' faces uncertain future ahead of $9 million auction". cnn.com. 17 October 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 "'It's coming home': LS Lowry's Going to the Match sells for £7.8m – to the Lowry gallery". theathletic.com (Archived). Archived from the original on 20 October 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  9. ↑ "12 facts about Going to the Match as King Charles visits Manchester". thenationalnews.com. 20 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "The Beautiful Game: A Guide To Lowry's Football Matches".
  11. ↑ "FourFourTwo is a work of art! Mag cover hangs in gallery next to iconic Lowry painting". fourfourtwo.com. 26 November 2022.
  12. ↑ "The Mayor of L.S. Lowry's Hometown Implores Wealthy Athletes to Buy a $9 Million Soccer Painting by the Artist to Keep It in a Local Museum". news.artnet.com. 17 October 2022.
  13. ↑ "L.S. Lowry painting could fetch a record £8m for football charity that received official 'mismanagement' warning". theartnewspaper.com. 14 September 2022.
  14. 1 2 Granlund, Angus. "LAURENCE STEPHEN LOWRY, R.A. (1887–1976) Going to the Match". christies.com. Christie's. Archived from the original on 18 December 2022. Retrieved 16 January 2024.
  15. 1 2 "Going to the Match: L.S. Lowry's Brueghel-like vision of a vanished England". Christie's. Archived from the original on 21 January 2024. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  16. ↑ Andrews 1977, p. 85.
  17. ↑ Rohde 2007, p. 4.
  18. ↑ "Footballers' union nets Lowry". BBC News. 1 December 1999. Retrieved 1 November 2012.
  19. ↑ Sherwood, Harriet; Arts, Harriet Sherwood; correspondent, culture (19 October 2022). "Salford museum pays £7.8m for LS Lowry's Going to the Match". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 8 August 2023.{{cite news}}: |last3= has generic name (help)
  20. ↑ Britton, Paul (30 April 2021). "Rare L.S Lowry rugby painting Going To The Match to go on public display". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  21. ↑ Cumming, Laura (29 June 2013). "Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life – review". The Observer. Archived from the original on 8 February 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  22. ↑ "Going to the Match". The Lowry. Retrieved 22 January 2024.

Sources

See also


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.