Lowry just £10 for ‘Going to the Mill’ in 1926 and kept it in the family for almost a century; 99 years later, the early industrial painting went to auction and sold for £805,200/Image: Lyon and Turnbull/PA A British editor paid L.S.
The painting, Going to the Mill , was sold at Mall Galleries in central London on Friday, 2 May last year. Created in 1925, it was purchased directly from Lowry by Arthur Wallace, then literary editor of the Manchester Guardian . the artist agreed to let Wallace have it for £10 Although the work was marked at £30 on the back. “Lowry said with great daring: ‘Could we say £10?’ and Grandpa wrote a cheque. So Grandpa got two Lowrys for £10,” Keith said.
Lowry proposed the lower price, after which Wallace wrote a cheque, according to him. “We’re absolutely delighted by the price achieved for this exceptional, early painting by Lowry, bought from him when he was a virtual unknown,” Hucker said. “Going to the Mill is the epitome of a 1920s Lowry, the period when he becomes a unique voice in British art,” Hucker said.
Wallace’s grandson, Keith, recalled how his grandfather acquired the work. The artist then offered him another painting. Then Lowry wrote back to him saying: ‘I think I’ve charged you too much. Can I give you another one as well? Hucker also described Going to the Mill as an example of Lowry’s distinctive approach to depicting industrial life. Rather than treating his figures as simple details within a scene, the artist used them to convey ideas about the experience of living in a crowded city.