LS Lowry's seaside Beach Scene could top $2.5m at Christie's

A painting by LS Lowry which swaps the industrial city for the seaside could sell for more than $2.5m at Christie's.

Beach Scene, painted in 1946, is the headline lot of Christie's Modern British and Irish Art Evening Sale which takes place in London on June 20.

Lowry beach scene
 Lowry looks to capture the exuberance of post-war Britain

  

Lowry is traditionally associated with industrial urban landscapes, painting his iconic matchstick figures among the factories and winding streets of northern Britain.

However, during the 1940s and 1950s he produced a series of paintings which depicted these same figures at play.

Lowry sought to capture the mood of exuberance in Britain following the end of WWII with brighter scenes of beach holidays, bank holiday fairgrounds and summer outings.

Many of these paintings recalled his own childhood, having spent summer holidays with his family at Lytham St Anne's on the Lancashire coast, and in the seaside town of Rhyl in north Wales.

One painting from this series, Good Friday, Daisy Nook, which depicted a busy Lancashire funfair, set an auction record for the artist in 2007 when it sold at Christie's for £3.7m ($7.4m).

According to Christie's: "Lowry's cast of holidaymakers appear more determined to enjoy the possibilities of a sunny day... they push babies in prams or walk with dogs, and the girls wear summer dresses and the boys ride bicycles. However, the hints of an industrial landscape beyond the composition, remind the viewer that this leisure break will soon be followed by the working week."

Having been acquired directly from Lowry's dealers at the Lefevre Gallery in 1946, the work has remained in private hands since.

It will now be offered on the open market for the first time in 70 years with an estimate of £1.3m - £1.8m ($1.9m - $2.6m).

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