''Portrait of Ann'' (1957) is a painting by British artist
L. S. Lowry (1887–1976). Opinion remains divided as to the identity of the subject, who appears in many of Lowry's works, and her significance for the artist.
Background
Lowry was elected an Associate of the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...
in 1955, an appointment that brought him a wider recognition in the art world than he had been previously afforded. On 1 November 1957 he appeared on the front page of ''
The Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' with his proposal for the academy's Spring Exhibition the following year. Although Lowry had painted portraits before (cf. the 'Horrible Heads' series from the 1930s), ''Portrait of Ann'' was seen as a major departure from Lowry's stock images of industrial scenes and millscapes — not least because Lowry very rarely used women as his subjects. Lowry described the style of the painting as being "modernist", explaining that the sitter "did not want her picture to be realistic; it had to be stylised." In common with Lowry's other oil paintings, ''Ann'' was executed using ivory black, vermilion, prussian blue, yellow ochre and flake white with no medium.
Upon its eventual exhibition, the painting was criticised by the art critic G.S. Whittet in the August 1958 edition of ''
The Studio'' as having a "crudely stylised face", but it was not without its supporters; Nesta Ellis, writing for the ''Sphinx'' art journal, thought the painting "gave the impression of an impassive yet willful woman". ''Ann'' was never sold at auction, but instead remained the property of the artist until it was bequeathed to
Salford Museum and Art Gallery
Salford Museum and Art Gallery, in Peel Park, Salford, Greater Manchester, opened to the public in November 1850 as the Royal Museum and Public Library. The gallery and museum are devoted to the history of Salford and Victorian art and archite ...
upon his death in 1976.
The subject
Lowry told the features reporter for the ''
Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' that Ann was 25 years old, lived in
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
and was "the daughter of some people who have been very good to me." The architect and
Manchester academician Frank Bradly, a friend of Lowry's, stated that Lowry had told him she was a pupil of his mother's who had died when she was 25. The artists
Harold Riley and
Pat Gerrard Cooke both claim that Lowry informed them Ann was a friend from
Lytham St Annes
Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the The Fylde, Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population of the built-up area at the 2021 United Kingdom census, ...
who died when she was in her early twenties.
[Cooke's recollection of this story was from visiting Lowry at his home in Mottram in Longdendale after he had moved there in 1948, while Riley's version dates from a conversation with Lowry in 1966 when the artist told his friend that he had attended Manchester Municipal College with Ann, who died from pneumonia before the outbreak of the ]First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. When ''Portrait of Ann'' was included as part of
Manchester City Art Gallery
Manchester Art Gallery, formerly Manchester City Art Gallery, is a publicly owned art museum on Mosley Street in Manchester city centre, England. The main gallery premises were built for a learned society in 1823 and today its collection occupi ...
's Lowry retrospective in 1959, however, the exhibition catalogue listed the work as being "lent by the sitter" (named on the index of lenders as a 'Miss Ann Helder') although, unlike the other works included at the exhibition, no correspondence appears to exist between the curatorial team and the owner.
Sources
*
*
Footnotes
External links
The Lowryfeatures information on Lowry's life and work.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portrait of Ann
1957 paintings
Portraits by English artists
Paintings by L. S. Lowry
Collection of the Lowry