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Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A.(British, 1887-1976)Punch and Judy, from School Prints
21 November – 3 December 2025, 12:00 GMT
London, Knightsbridge£700 - £1,000
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Zoe Luchmun
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Daniela Guardiani
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Carolin von Massenbach
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Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976)
Punch and Judy, from School Prints
Offset lithograph in colours, 1947, on wove paper, from the edition of 6,000, printed by The Baynard Press, published by The Sunday Observer for School Prints Ltd., London, the full sheet, framed
Sheet 493 x 761mm (19 3/8 x 30in)
Offset lithograph in colours, 1947, on wove paper, from the edition of 6,000, printed by The Baynard Press, published by The Sunday Observer for School Prints Ltd., London, the full sheet, framed
Sheet 493 x 761mm (19 3/8 x 30in)
Footnotes
At the time of Lowry's painting his canvas Punch and Judy in 1943, the light entertainment provided by these short comic pieces had been amusing Britons for several centuries.
The Punch and Judy puppet show is rooted in the 17th century Italian Commedia dell'Arte. Punch, an anglicisation of the Neapolitan Pulcinella, is an anarchic character who usually teases his wife Judy through his slapstick.
Lowry would have attended several of these shows like other British children during the holidays on the coast. When the painting came to be, in the middle of WWII, the artist may have wanted to find some solace from the atrocity of the war by going back to a serene time of childhood.
It is not a case that this image was chosen by Lowry when he was invited to participate in Brenda Rawnsley's School Prints project, which aim was to bring art into schools, and familiarise children to it, especially directed at those less fortunate who would have otherwise no access to it.
The offset lithograph was printed in an edition of 6,000 by the Baynard Press and sold for about £3 each. Every participating artist, the likes of Henry Moore, John Nash and Julian Trevelyan, was to produce prints of the same size, so that they could be interchangeable in standard sized frames.
Seventy-five copies of the original edition were later signed by Lowry and re-released in 1972.