Lowry’s Going to the Match expected to fetch £8m at auction

Going to the Match by LS Lowry: ‘about emotion, excitement, the crowd gathering, the group experience’. Photograph: Christies press office

They stream towards the turnstiles, stick-like figures instantly familiar to anyone who has looked at a painting by LS Lowry.

In the foreground, their coats and hats are distinct. In the background, beneath the tall chimneys of a long-gone heavy industry, the people are a blur. But all of them have a common purpose: going to the match.