February 23, 197

Here's an interesting artist -- L. S. Lowry (November 1, 1887 to February 23, 1976).  He painted urban, industrial pictures of modern Britain, and what strikes me, really, is how much his work looks like Pieter Breughal's scenes. So utterly different and yet, what comes across is a sense of -- humanity, not humans, but their groupy, perhaps more fundamental, factness, that is shared. Here's an example:

"The Three Cats, Alstow" (1969-70).

His biography reminds one more of Philip Larkin in a psychological sense. Lowry though seems to have had a firmer grasp of the verities: he refused to call himself a painter. He was he said, a man who paints. Can't imagine Larkin saying he wasn't a poet. And they both left some scandalous stuff to be discovered after their deaths.

Lowry is said to have turned down more British honors, such as knighthoods, etc, than anyone else. Still it is pleasant to remember that in 1953, he was the official artist at the coronation. And in 1964, the prime minister Harold Wilson used a painting of Lowry's on his Christmas card. That is, if you can believe anything on Wikipedia.