Ebbw Vale Steel Works

Lowry revisited the theme of the industrial landscape during the 1960s at a time when his friendship with the Southport businessman and enthusiastic patron, Monty Bloom, was flourishing. By the time Lowry and Bloom forged their friendship, Lowry was already recognised and in the later stages of his career. Lowry achieved immense popularity during his lifetime, largely on the legacy of his early representations of life in the industrialised north. His highly individualised aesthetic recast traditional perceptions of the British landscape, as his cityscapes subverted deeply-set sentimental notions associated with the genre. Indeed, Lowry's innovative approach to landscape became immensely popular, tapping into the conscious of a populous gripped by the turmoil of modernity. Lowry's compositions expertly conveyed the paradox that for many marked city existence - the experience of loneliness and isolation within a bustling metropolis. Despite attracting much attention, Lowry never compromised his artistic intentions for commercial success, which followed on naturally. He seemed, however, uncomfortable with popularity or affirmation, preferring to stand at the margins of the art establishment, deliberately seeking out the unconventional in his compositions.

'In the 1960s, the artist made a number of brief annual visits to South Wales. He went with a friend to visit a fortune-teller in the Rhondda Valley. But inevitably the grandeur of the industrial areas made a great impression on him and he produced variations on the theme of the northern urban industrial landscapes which by contrast often exhibit a curious rural flavour' (M. Levy, exhibition catalogue, L.S. Lowry R.A., London, Royal Academy, 1976, p. 86). The fortune-teller, Mrs Flook, lived in Abertillery. During the course of their meetings Lowry was impressed by her knowledge of his life, although he never disclosed in detail what she had told him (S. Rohde, L.S. Lowry A Biography, Salford, 1999, p. 372-74).