A Footbridge, a pencil drawing by LS Lowry that was originally bought for just four guineas, is to star at Bonhams' Modern British and Irish Art auction in London.
 According to Bonhams, 'Lowry was always irritated by people who thought he was an amateur painter, self-taught and untutored.' |
Dame Mabel Tylecote purchased the piece for the paltry sum back in 1942, but it has now been consigned to the May 28 sale with a £70,000-100,000 estimate ($114,144-163,063).
At the time of one of Lowry's earliest exhibitions, Guardian writer Bernard Taylor wrote: "We hear a great deal nowadays about recovering the simplicity of vision of primitives in art. These pictures are authentically primitive, the real thing not an artificially cultivated likeness to it.
"The problems of representation are solved not by reference to established conventions, but by sheer determination to express what the artist has felt, whether the result is according to rule or not..."
The sale follows Bonhams' previous Modern British and Irish Art auction in November, which saw 18 Lowry works cross the block with a total value of $2.8m. The popularity of the beloved northern painter continues to build, with Bonhams stating in 2013: "The market for the artist is stronger than ever."
However, May's sale at Bonhams could be overshadowed by a Sotheby's auction in March, which is offering a set of 15 Lowry painting with a combined estimate of £15m ($24.7m).
 The Henry Moore work, which appears to be a study for a sculpture, was created using pencil, crayon, watercolour and gouache |
The top lot at Bonhams will be Six Standing Figures by the great British sculptor Henry Moore, a mixed media work that is expected to sell for between £120,000 and £180,000 ($195,676-293,513).
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