Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976) Portrait of a woman...

Laurence Stephen Lowry R.A. (British, 1887-1976)
Portrait of a woman
signed and dated 'L S Lowry 1917.' (lower centre)
pencil
37.5 x 33.6 cm. (14 3/4 x 13 1/4 in.) (sheet); 33.6 x 25 cm. (13 1/4 x 9 3/4 in.) (image)
Provenance
Ned Owens, thence by family descent to the present owner
Private Collection, U.K.

Exhibited
Manchester, Manchester Art Gallery (catalogue untraced)

Ned Owens, a fellow artist, knew Lowry personally and co-founded (along with his wife Margo Ingham) the Mid-Day Studios Gallery which was located opposite Manchester Art Gallery. The gallery made a considerable difference to local artists and in fact held Lowry's first solo show in Manchester in 1948, which was an important show of support for the artist who at the time was famously appreciated more outside of his home city than in it. Lowry even painted the Mid-Day Studios, and an oil painting of this subject (previously in Ned Owen's collection) is now in the Manchester Art Gallery. Ned Owens was a staff artist for the Manchester Guardian, and he and his first wife Margo Ingham are mentioned and pictured in Shelley Rohde's biography of Lowry (see Shelley Rohde, L. S. Lowry: A Biography, Lowry Press, Salford Quays, 1999, pp.338-341).