L.S. Lowry

1 portrait of L.S. Lowry

© Carol A. Lowry

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L.S. Lowry

by L.S. Lowry
pencil, circa 1920
15 in. x 11 in. (381 mm x 279 mm)
Purchased, 1987
Primary Collection
NPG 5951

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Lowry described standing on Pendlebury Station in 1916, and waking to the beauties of the northern indus trial landscape. His work has a unique place in twentieth-century British art for his idiosyncratic vision of those landscapes, peopled with matchstick figures, sets him apart from the mainstream, but is nevertheless in the tradition of English visionary artists such as William Blake and Stanley Spencer. His self-portraits were always given general titles which conferred an anonimity in keeping with his reclusive nature. This self portrait was entitled simply 'Head of a Man'. The critic Mervyn Levy has said that it is in no way a literal or factually accurate portrait, being more about a state of mind and intended to express a sense of loneliness.

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Current affairs

The Government of Ireland Act (Fourth Home Rule Bill) partitions Ireland into the Irish Free State with a devolved parliament in Dublin and Northern Ireland with a devolved parliament in Belfast.
The Communist Party of Great Britain is founded in London, uniting a number of independent socialist and Marxist parties into a single, united party.

Art and science

Queen Alexandra unveils a monument to Edith Cavell in St Martin's Place opposite the National Portrait Gallery. The English nurse was executed in Germany for helping hundreds of allied soldiers to cross the border from occupied Belgium to the neutral Netherlands.
George V officially opens the Imperial War Museum at the Crystal Palace.

International

The Kapp Putsch threatens the newly formed Weimar Republic. In defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the leaders of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt refused to disband and marched on Berlin, occupying it on the 13th March. With the general army refusing to defend the city, the government fled to Stuttgart. The rebellion, however, failed after the workers joined a general strike, disabling their plans.

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