Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) was born in Manchester. He was an unusual artist. From the 1920s he produced many pictures of the industrial North while working as a clerk. In his spare time he attended classes in life-drawing and painting. Lowry made the industrial scene the central theme of his art. In A Manufacturing Town (1922) he shows the choking atmosphere of the industrial heart of England.

There ist no blue sky. As an observer of life Lowry painted what he saw around him. His main focus was not on what was inside people’s lives. The artist was more concerned with the timeless elements of the industrial life of his time. He had an affection for the place and its people. His solitary existence is a key to the understanding of his paintings.