Ingram Reid
Director
This auction has ended. View lot details
You may also be interested in
Lot 66AR
Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.(British, 1887-1976)Spinning the Mill 26.5 x 35.8 cm. (10 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.)
Amended
18 June 2025, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£30,000 - £50,000
Looking for a similar item?
Our Modern British & Irish Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Penny Day
Head of UK and Ireland
Christopher Dawson
Head of Department
Grace Berry
Associate Specialist
Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976)
Spinning the Mill
signed and dated 'LS Lowry 1929' (lower right)
pencil
26.5 x 35.8 cm. (10 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.)
signed and dated 'LS Lowry 1929' (lower right)
pencil
26.5 x 35.8 cm. (10 1/2 x 14 1/8 in.)
Footnotes
Provenance
Private Collection, U.K.
With Crane Kalman Gallery, London, January 2004
With Halcyon Gallery, London, where acquired by the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.
Exhibited
Salford, The Lowry, L.S. Lowry: Conversation Pieces, 2003
From the late 18th century until Lowry's day, the spinning mills of the north-west of England provided the lifeblood for many of the region's population. Primarily weaving cotton, these baulking goliaths of the industrial skyline had fascinated Lowry ever since a eureka moment he experienced in 1916. One day, having missed a train and with idle time, Lowry recalled how '... as I got to the top of the station steps I saw the Acme Spinning Company's Mill, the huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows stood up against the sad, damp-charged afternoon sky .... I watched this scene – which I'd looked at many times without seeing – with rapture'. (Lowry quoted in Judith Sandling and Mike Leber, Lowry's City, A Painter and His Locale, Lowry Press, Salford, 2000, p.17).
Depictions of mills and their workforce are Lowry's most iconic pictures, and this early example shows the artist laying out his approach to such masterpieces at the formative stage of his career. It belongs to a series of line drawings of the mid 1920s which have been noted by Mervyn Levy as being the most important innovation of the decade for Lowry. Whilst in subject they may appear simple, their focus around incidents (sometimes explicit, sometimes not) displays the artist's early interest in human psychology, and the mood of a crowd. It is also in these drawings in which Lowry develops an idiosyncratic vocabulary of images, with certain figures, arrangements, spires and chimneys, making their debut before re-appearing throughout his work, across the decades.
Spinning the Mill from 1929 is a rare example of a classic mill scene in Lowry's innovative line drawing approach. Its strong compositional depth signifies the exceptional draughtsmanship for which Lowry is famed – and whilst it is brimming with figures – their apparent inertia, puzzling reason for gathering and disconnect with the factory itself adds intrigue. The work also enjoys notable exhibition history having been selected for display at The Lowry in 2003.
Saleroom notices
Please note that there is additional provenance for this lot as follows: Sale; Phillips, London, 13 March 1984, lot 195 (as Labour Exchange)