L.S. Lowry's 1960 painting Station Approach, Manchester, a rare cityscape by the Salford artist, has gone on sale for £3 million and will be displayed publicly for the first time in decades at a major UK art fair.
The 30 x 40in oil on canvas, owned by a private collector for over 40 years, was recently acquired by London art dealer MacConnal-Mason. It will be the star exhibit on their stand at the LAPADA Berkeley Square Fair, running from 27 October to 1 November.
A Faithful Depiction of Manchester's Exchange Station
Art experts describe the piece as one of the few compositions where Lowry, known for his matchstick figures and industrial northern scenes, stayed almost entirely true to the actual scene. The painting centres on the Victorian facade of the London and North-Western Railway's Exchange Station, completed in 1884, which connected Manchester to Liverpool, Huddersfield, Leeds, Hull, Newcastle and London Euston.
The station's importance is conveyed by a dense stream of figures moving past the statue of Oliver Cromwell, presented to the city in 1875, down Victoria Street, across the River Irwell and towards the station.
A Landmark of Lowry's Mature Career
The painting dates from 1960 and belongs to a group of large-scale works of distinctive landmarks Lowry produced around that period, including Piccadilly Circus in London. David Mason of MacConnal-Mason called it "one of the most important cityscapes of L.S. Lowry's mature career."
Its significance is underscored by Lowry's decision to make a smaller version of the subject and present it to the Royal Academy in 1962, the year he was elected a Royal Academician.
The Station's Legacy
Exchange Station, opposite Manchester Cathedral, closed to passengers in 1969 but remained operational for "newspaper trains" delivering northern editions of national papers into the 1980s. The train shed was demolished in the 1980s and the tracks lifted in 1993. Today, only the former railway arches remain, with those below the station housing the Q car park.
The work, which has not appeared at auction for more than 40 years, is now on sale through MacConnal-Mason.
