About

Born Laurence Stephen Lowry in 1887, he was raised in the outskirts of Manchester as an only child. Although the family was middle class, financial difficulties meant they had to move to the industrial area of Pendlebury. To help make ends meet, Lowry left school at 16 and clerked at an accountancy firm.

Lowry was never a full-time artist: in his early twenties, he took a job as a rent collector, and this would be his primary trade for the next four decades. Today, Lowry is best remembered for his busy industrial scenes. Complete with looming mills, imposing factories, smoking chimneys and …