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


Bank Failure signed and dated 'LS Lowry 1922' (lower left)pencil27.2 x 38.5 cm. (10 3/4 x 15 1/8 in.)
|ProvenanceReverend Geoffrey S. Bennett, by 1967, where purchased byPrivate Collection, U.K., 1977, where purchased by the present ownerPrivate Collection, U.K.ExhibitedSunderland, City Art Gallery, L.S. Lowry, organised by The Arts Council, 27 August-17 September 1966, cat.no.124; this exhibition traveled to Manchester, Whitworth Art Gallery, 24 September-15 October, Bristol, City Art Gallery, 22 October-12 November and London, Tate Gallery, 22 November-15 January 1967Stoke-on-Trent, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Lowry and Berry Observers of Urban Life, 25 July 2015-10 January 2016LiteratureMervyn Levy, The Drawings of L.S. Lowry: Public and Private, Jupiter Books, London, 1976Bank Failure belongs to a group of four 1920s drawings including Man Taken Ill, Street Scene and Outside the Mill, each of which were initially owned by Reverend Geoffrey S. Bennett and were published together as a set of prints. The present work is accompanied by a letter from Reverend Bennett which explains that when Jupiter books published the 1976 Levy book of Lowry drawings, as this group of works were unavailable, his personal hand-signed set of prints were photographed for the illustrations. Of the composition, Levy comments:'A simple subject, brilliantly exploited. The strolling figure of the artist swaggers in from the left-hand side of the picture, briskly twirling his walking-stick. There is humour too in the bank sign.' (Mervyn Levy, The Drawings of L.S. Lowry: Public and Private, Jupiter Books, London, 1976, unnumbered).The 1966 exhibition catalogue explains that the idea for the work was based on the newspaper reports at the time of the failure of Farrow's Bank in London.