Lancaster woman's Lowry painting sells for £1m

The North Sea was sold from the estate of the Lancaster-born friend of L.S. Lowry who hasn’t been named.

She would meet up with the artist in Morecambe and the pair bonded over their shared love of the sea. She later recounted Lowry’s delight in the simple pleasures of eating ice cream and his visible enjoyment of the seaside.

The woman herself had a special affinity with the sea sparked by childhood holidays in St Bees on the Cumbrian coast. After studying to become a classical pianist in Perugia and Paris, she returned to the North West to marry, and together with her husband set up a successful business.

She acquired The North Sea painting, described as one of the finest examples of Lowry’s rare large-scale seascapes, after it was exhibited in 1967.

Lowry was fascinated by the sea which he painted throughout his life, mainly depicting the North West coast. One of his works is of Morecambe Sands. His frequent visits to Knott End in the 1940s and 1950s are commemorated with a sculpture close to the Knott End to Fleetwood ferry.

However, The North Sea was probably inspired by his frequent holidays at a hotel in Sunderland where he always stayed in the same room with its sea view.

His rare, seemingly simple, yet highly sophisticated seascapes are far removed from the bustling industrial streets scenes for which he is better known.