He had what has been described as a love affair with the region, finding a retreat there from the pressures brought by success. The area also provided a fruitful new source of inspiration for his work: people, places, and especially the sea, which so fascinated him. This drawing is one of the earliest known works by Lowry with a north-east subject and could well have been drawn on his first recorded trip to the region. Worn out by looking after his mother during her long illness, he was ordered by the doctor to have a holiday for the sake of his own health. Something of the stress and tension he was under seems to appear in this fine drawing of a location for which the artist had a particular liking, returning again and again over the years.

Provenance

The artist; from whom acquired by Tony Ellis before 1962; Mrs Joan Balston.