Lowry, Laurence Stephen (1887–1976)

L. S. Lowry was a modern British artist celebrated for his depictions of Salford and Manchester. As well as making portraits, landscapes, and seascapes, he is best known for painting what the artist called ‘the industrial scene’, by which he meant the physical fabric of Britain’s industrial north, its distinctive sense of place and accompanying phenomenon of working-class culture. Often populated with crowds of people set amidst a backdrop of terraced streets, mills, and factories, Lowry’s urban scenes speak to the region’s identity as pioneer of the Industrial Revolution as well as the radical social, economic, and environmental upheaval of the early twentieth century.