Laurence Stephen Lowry, R.A. (1887-1976)

The present work belongs to a series of paintings by Lowry in which he has depicted the head and shoulders of an individual against an empty background. These works are particularly uncompromising and the figures tend to stare straight out at the viewer. Lowry began working on these type of portraits in the 1930s, a time when he was working full-time at the Pall Mall Property Company in Manchester and nursing his bed-ridden mother. The haunting quality of the heads reflect Lowry's emotional state as he was emotionally and physically drained during this period of his life (see also Head of a man, sold in these rooms, 17 November 2006, lot 138, £254,400, private collection).

Dating from 1955 Girl's Head demonstrates Lowry's continued interest in the grotesque: ' ... It just happened that way. Everything in my life has just happened. There's a grotesque streak in me and I can't help it. My characters? They are all people you might see in a park. They are real people, sad people; something's gone wrong in their lives. I'm attracted to sadness, and there are some very sad things you see' (see M. Howard, Lowry: A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, p. 162).