London auction house Sotheby’s is putting a 1950 work by LS Lowry up for sale, with the painting expected to go for between £1.5 million and £2.5 million.
Father and Two Sons comes to the market from Manchester-born collector Frank Cohen after 20 years in private hands, and was previously owned by Monty Bloom, Lowry’s key patron of the later part of his career.
Cohen, described as ‘the Saatchi of the north’ bought it for “a lot of money” in 1999 after he sold his DIY business.
“I couldn’t resist [at the time] as it had always reminded me of the very first job I had after leaving school at 15,” said Cohen. I worked for Perring’s Furniture stores, as the ‘tea-boy’ in the offices, earning £2, 14 shillings and seven-pence a week.
“When the boss used to arrive at work – he was the clerk of the company – he’d walk in every morning with his bowler hat on, flanked on either side by two minders with winged collars. That image stayed with me forever until I found this Lowry.”
Lowry’s work has been the subject of national acclaim ever since a permanent dedicated to his work was installed at Salford’s Lowry Theatre when it opened in 2000.
But a Tate London show in 2013 smashed the patronising preconception that Lowry was only a northern industrial painter.
His works are now changing hands for incredible sums.
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On 17 November 2015 Father and Two Sons will lead Sotheby’s latest sale of Modern & Post-War British art.
According to Cohen, Lowry should be ranked alongside some of the country’s greatest ever painters, including Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud.
“I recall being in the Wolseley, London, when I spotted Lucian sitting at his usual corner table.
“We’d known each other over the years and got talking.
“One of the questions I posed was ‘who are your favourite artists?’ to which he replied, without hesitation, ‘Auerbach and Lowry’. And Freud knew a thing or two about painting as we all know…”
“This is a painting that reminds me of my youth, but I’m now getting on in life so I’m thinking of the future. I feel that after nearly 20 years it’s the right time to part with it and enable someone else to appreciate it as much as I have.”
