Street scene in the snow

Michael Howard comments that the present work 'is reminiscent of paintings by Camille Pissarro, with Lowry's white gound rendering exactly the qualities of the tainted urban snow as it lies like a blanket over the street and houses. To the right, however, echoing the colours of the houses, the rectangular shape of a van waits as figures pass by, huddle together, or simply stand and stare. This is a fever van ... As contemporary viewers would know very well, vans like this were brought in to fumigate a stricken household. Its inclusion in the painting acts as a reminder of the constant presence of illness, disease and death in the working-class areas of South Lancashire towns' (see M. Howard, Lowry A Visionary Artist, Salford, 2000, pp. 142-3).