ALAN LOWNDES (1921 - 1978) - The Sheffield Connection
Born 23 February 1921, in Stockport; died 22 September 1978.Gloucestershire
Painter. Scenes with figures, genre scenes, landscapes, seascapes.
The following biographical details are taken from Marais Fine Arts
"Alan Lowndes was born in 1921 in Neaton Norris, a suburb of Stockport. He left school at 14, apprenticed to a decorator. After active service in the Second World War, Lowndes attended evening classes, studying art at Stockport College, committing to a full time course in the late 1940s, but was largely self-taught.
He began to achieve success in the late 1950s and early 1960s in the period when northern writers such as Stan Barstow, John Braine and Alan Sillitoe were also coming to the fore. He had one man exhibitions in Manchester, London and New York and is represented in many public collections. Like Lowry, Lowndes was a painter of the working classes, represented by the same dealer. They had similarly simplistic styles of painting and like Lowry, Lowndes’s work presents a nostalgic vision of life in the urban north. Many of Lowndes’s contemporaries did not appreciate his art. His father famously offered to pay his bus fare to the wealthy Alderley Edge in order that he might paint the scenic spot referred to as Artists’ Lane rather than ordinary people going about their everyday lives. Willis Hall wrote: ‘Lowndes; artistically at least, has become more of a sociologist than a socialist. He describes, vividly and with great insight; he observes the change, somewhat passively; but he does not prescribe the cure’. Although often compared to L. S. Lowry, he is considered by Terry Frost to be a greater painter.
From the early 1950s Lowndes began to work in St Ives, Cornwall, settling in the area for just over a decade. He became a close friend of many of the St. Ives School artists. In 1964 the Lowndes family moved from St Ives to the small village of Halestown after he had enjoyed successful exhibitions. He later settled in Dursley, Gloucestershire, but periodically returned to Stockport to work.
Alan Lowndes died in Gloucestershire in 1978. He is today regarded as one of the most important of the painters within the twentieth century Northern School. Lowndes has a wide body of collectors and his paintings are now much sought after."
This is an obituary from The Daily Telegraph dated 27th September 1978
There is more biographical details on the excellent Blog of Peter James Field
"..no sign of violence in the gentle domestic work of Alan Lowndes – often unfairly dismissed as a ‘naïve artist’. Lowndes was an untrained painter whose career had two distinct phases – an early period from the late 40s through to the 60s observing the comings and goings in his native Stockport (a period of relative success, when he was collected by the Tate Gallery and other major public collections). Then a complete change, when he joined the artistic community at St. Ives in Cornwall.
His work seems at its best to mix painterly expressionism, more akin to European painters like Munch, with a quaint and eccentric viewpoint that is wholly English. Melancholy tolls like a bell through the pictures.
I discovered Lowndes’ work by chance as a young teenager – during a trip to see my great aunt in Bedford we wandered into the local art gallery and got chatting with an extraordinarily posh lady - who turned out to be the curator, Lady Halina Graham. Lady Graham was intrigued by the fervency of my devotion to art – and sent me away with two shopping bags full of old art catalogues she happened to have lying round in her office.
One of these was a 1975 Crane Kalman gallery catalogue for a small Lowndes retrospective. He didn’t immediately hit me as the most sophisticated (or good) painter I’d ever come across, but as time passed that catalogue became one of my favourite possessions (and still is). I found the pictures incredibly human and evocative, transporting me to the street corners of a very recent past, forever lost.
In the early days of my interest in Lowndes (pre-internet) there was absolutely no other information to be found about him, which made it all the more fascinating. What became of him, was he still alive? I travelled to London aged 16 (sad teen that I was) to seek out some answers.
I found that the Crane Kalman gallery still existed and managed to grab a quick chat with Andras Kalman, the ageing owner. He told me that Lowndes had died in 1978. Affected by a stammer that seriously affected his communication, he had succumbed to alcoholism. I wasn’t surprised. I had always sensed the sadness and awkward isolation of a man who’d devoted his life to those strange, clunky observations."
He was mentioned by the columnist and author Keith Waterhouse in the Daily Mirror dated 25th September 1978
There was also an article in The Daily Telegraph dated 28th May 1984
But neither article mentions a Sheffield connection with an artist that is clearly getting national and international recognition.
The Sheffield Weekly Gazette dated Thursday 23rd November 2006 carried this report about the proposed sale of one of Alan's paintings
A week later the same newspaper reported that the painting fetched nearly three times the estimate.
In 2012 the newspapers carried this report
" A world record price of £30,000 has been established for a painting by celebrated Stockport-born artist Alan Lowndes.
The buyer of Lowndes Beach Scene’ is Bill Clark of Clark Art Ltd of Ashley Road, Hale, Cheshire, who is staging an exhibition of renowned Northern artists featuring L.S. Lowry and Alan Lowndes.
Grand Auctions, a new auction house in Kent, established the record price for Beach Scene, (oil on board, 32 x 48 inches). It was painted in 1964 and extensively exhibited across the UK over the past 45 years, including at The Tate Gallery. The previous record of £29,000 was held by Sothebys of London.
Bill Clark said Alan Lowndes is one of his favourite northern artists: ‘Lowndes’s work is quite scarce since he was not as prolific as some so when I heard this painting was available I was very excited. Its large size sets it apart and also the fact that it is a beach scene gives it a very wide appeal.
‘Lowndes and Lowry were very much from the same stable, they shared the same dealer for example, and when you consider that the record for a Lowry is £3.7 million, you can appreciate why Alan Lowndes is so much in demand,’ he added. Clark Art specialise in northern art and always have works by Alan Lowndes in stock, which can be viewed on their website www.clark-art.co.uk.
Alan Lowndes was born in 1921 in Stockport, the fourth child of a railway clerk. He left school at 14, apprenticed to a decorator, but after active service in the Second World War, Lowndes developed his love of painting around Stockport and Manchester. He depicted street scenes and Northerners going about their daily business or enjoying their pleasures in the chip shop or pub. He later moved to Cornwall and added Cornish seascapes and local people to his repertoire. Finally the family moved to Gloucestershire until his death in 1978.
Establishing a world record for a Lowndes painting has special significance for Jonathan Riley, the paintings specialist at Grand Auctions. Jonathan published a biography of the artist in 2010 and is the leading expert on his work.
Jonathan said: ‘Lowndes has a wide body of collectors and his paintings are now much sought after. There was considerable interest in this painting and we had high hopes of establishing a new record, which we are delighted to have achieved. Beach Scene has been extensively exhibited and kept by the family in their private collections. The vendor acquired the painting some years ago directly from the family.
‘In 1964 the Lowndes family moved from St Ives to the small village of Halestown after he had enjoyed successful exhibitions. 1964 was a very productive year for Lowndes, completing some 40 canvases, including ‘Beach Scene’. This painting shows all the compositional qualities of Lowndes at his very best,’ he said.
Bill Clark also purchased another painting by Alan Lowndes at the Grand Auctions sale – ‘Cat Confrontation’ (oil on board, 12 inches x 9 inches) was sold for £4,800."
Notes
Name: Alan Bailey Lowndes
Death Age: 57
Birth Date: 23 Feb 1921
Registration Date: Sep 1978 Registration district: Gloucester Inferred County: Gloucestershire
Volume: 22 Page: 1698
Alan Lowndes Probate Record
1939 National Register
Family details
Birth
abt 1887 • Moss Nook, Cheshire, England
Birth of Son Samuel Morrey Bailey Lowndes(1909–1983) Stockport, Cheshire, England
Residence 02 Apr 1911 • Stockport, Cheshire, England
Birth of Daughter Jenny Lowndes(1915–) 1915 • Stockport
Birth of Son Alan Lowndes(1921–1978) 23 Feb 1921 • Stockport, Cheshire, England
Birth of Daughter Helen Christine Lowndes(1923–1997) 4 June 1923 • Stockport
Death of Wife Jenny Lowndes(1890–1925) Dec 1925 • Manchester North, Lancashire, England
Death of Son Alan Lowndes(1921–1978) Sep 1978 • Gloucester, Gloucestershire, England
Death of Son Samuel Morrey Bailey Lowndes(1909–1983) Sep 1983 • St Helens, Lancashire, England
Death of Daughter Helen Christine Lowndes(1923–1997) 1997 • Rochdale, Lancashire, England
Sources
Daily Mirror dated 25th September 1978
The Daily Telegraph dated 27th September 1978
The Daily Telegraph dated 28th May 1984
The Sheffield Weekly Gazette dated Thursday 23rd November 2006
The Sheffield Weekly Gazette dated Thursday 30th November 2006
This page was last updated on 02/05/22 10:27