His large frame, raincoat, and hat are familiar. The figure stood outside a railway station is L S Lowry.
The black and white picture is from the 1950s. And it was in 1953 that the artist completed an oil painting of the very same location - Pendlebury Railway Station, on Bolton Road, opposite St Augustine's Church.
The station was about a mile from the artist's home in Station Road, Pendlebury, and he used it regularly to travel into Manchester. The painting, dating from 1953, and called The Railway Platform, featured a line of passengers. The jagged awning that hangs over people on the platform in the painting is a distinctive frieze in yellow brickwork.
The last train to stop there was the 23.21 from Manchester Victoria to Wigan on October 1, 1960. There were just six people on board, one of whom was a shopkeeper, Mr Jackson, a 37-year-old shopkeeper, from Chorley Road, Swinton, who bought the last ticket ever issued at Pendlebury Station. He bought it from porter, Mr D White, and it was a single to Swinton.
When station was closed by British Rail John F Kennedy was President of the United States and Harold MacMillan was the British Prime Minister. But The station started life as part of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway's Pendleton and Hindley line that grew into (and still exists today as) the Manchester Victoria to Wigan Wallgate line.
By 1922, ownership had passed to the London, Midland, and Scottish Railway, and upon nationalistion in 1949 it became property of British Railways.
In 2015 The Railway Platform sold at auction for £1.6m - £300,000 above its then estimate. On Tuesday next week it will go under the hammer again at Christie's but with an estimate price of up to £2m.
The work was first shown at the Lefevre Gallery, London. It was then with the Richard Green Gallery in London, where it was purchased by a private collector. In their sale it was sold by Sotheby's, London, on November 15th 2011, and purchased by the previous owner. In a sale on November 25th it was purchased by the present owner.
The work is among five Lowry paintings going under the hammer at Christie's on Tuesday. Nick Orchard, Head of Modern British and Irish Art at Christie's. "L.S. Lowry's works have enduring appeal, depicting the communities that the artist encountered whether at work or during their leisure time. Lowry's economy of detail seems to convey so much more beyond the canvas and the viewer is absorbed in the lives of others, captured in a moment yet unaware of their observer.
"The group of works presented in the upcoming Modern British and Irish Art season of auctions at Christie's present a full and varied range of subject matter, including commuters as they congregate on the platform; a rare view of Glasgow Docks; and Clock Tower, which is being offered from the collection of the Manchester Guardian's art critic Eric Newton."
Lowry recalled an inspirational moment at Pendlebury Station which transformed his view of the industrial landscape. around him: "One day I missed a train from Pendlebury...and as I left the station I saw the Acme Spinning Company's mill… The huge black framework of rows of yellow-lit windows standing up against the sad, damp charged afternoon sky. The mill was turning out… I watched this scene — which I'd looked at many times without seeing — with rapture, he recalled.
This experience led Lowry to incorporate elements of local textile mills and factory chimneys into many of his works, and elements of the Acme Mill can be seen in two of his iconic paintings: Coming From The Mill (1930) and The Mill, Pendlebury, (1941).
The station painting is amongst a group of five paintings by Lowry are included in a sale on Tuesday evening. They are: The Railway Platform (1953, estimate: £1,000,000-2,000,000); The Clock Tower (1938, estimate: £400,000-600,000); Mrs Swindells’ Picture (1967, estimate; £250,000-350,000); A Lancashire Farm (1945, estimate: £180,000-250,000); and Glasgow Docks (1947, estimate: £1,100,000-1,500,000
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