Painted in 1928, Going to the Match it is among the earliest known depictions, if not the earliest, of one of LS Lowry's most iconic and timeless subjects: that of spectators flocking to a sporting occasion. Known for his football imagery, it is significant that it is a rugby match that he chose to paint first, no doubt a testament to the importance of Rugby League to Northern communities. One of the few paintings of the sport known to have been painted by Lowry, the extremely rare work is an outstanding example of the beloved artist's unique visual language. In this painting, the red flag seen flying to the ground, as well as the red scarves worn by many members of the crowd, allude to the Salford Red Devils – Lowry's local team.
Having remained in the same family collection since 1972, and exhibited only once in 1966, Going to the Match will be offered with an estimate of £2.000.000 – 3.000.000 as part of the inaugural Sotheby's British Art: Modern / Contemporary auction live-stream this summer. The The painting will travel to New York, Edinburgh and Dublin for public exhibitions ahead of the auction, before going on display at Sotheby's New Bond Street from 22-29 June.
In August 1895, twenty-two clubs met at the George Hotel in Huddersfield to form the Northern Rugby League, leaving Rugby Union to allow working-class players to be compensated for wages lost in the game. During the game's development over the twentieth century, Rugby League became deeply ingrained into the social and cultural fabric of the north of England and matches have attracted huge crowds, with the culmination of each season the Challenge Cup Final still continuing Today.
“People think crowds are all the same. But I'm not, you know. Everyone is different. Look! That man is having a contraction. He is limping. He drank too much beer… It's wonderful isn't it”
LS Lowry mentioned in conversation with art critic Edwin Mullins.
The work was painted in the same year that a 41-year-old Lowry finished a thirteen-year period of part-time art school attendance – starting with night classes at Manchester School of Art and finishing at Salford School for art – while working. This early masterpiece demonstrates the key influence of his art teacher in Manchester, the French Impressionist Adolphe Valette, while Lowry takes up the mantle set by Manet, Pissarro, Degas and Van Gogh in their record of XNUMXs modernity. In France, the focus was on parks, boulevards, trams and the grittier aspects of life on the city's edge, while Lowry took the industrial setting and atmosphere of Manchester as his lifelong subject.
This atmosphere is felt acutely in the monochromatic palette and heavy clouds of Going to the Match: a cold, gray day as the crowd makes its way through gray factories and a billowing chimney to the match. Unlike the more picturesque elements of the Impressionists, Lowry offers a more realistic rendering, demystifying the industrial landscape through a play rooted in the fabric of Nordic life.
