Rare Lowry painting bought by city art gallery for £42 ‘could be worth £1m’

Houses Near A Mill, by Laurence Stephen Lowry in 1941, was procured by Derby Museum and Art Gallery five years after it was created and before the artist became a famous name.

The scene is instantly recognisable as a Lowry picture, featuring an industrial scene, complete with matchstick men and matchstick cats and dogs. The painting is unusual because, unlike many of his works which depict figures in an industrial landscape, Houses Near A Mill features a domestic scene, complete with washing hung out to dry.

Fine art assistant Amanda Askari said the painting is an important part of the museum’s collection.

She said: “Many of Lowry’s paintings depict scenes which no longer exist. Lowry’s interpretation of what he saw affords us a glimpse of our industrial past.

“One particularly interesting feature about Houses Near A Mill is that it is still in its original frame, which is also painted in white by Lowry.”

Another of the Lancashire-born artist’s works, picturing a Caithness town, could sell for £500,000 to £800,000 when it is auctioned later this month. Houses Near A Mill is believed to be worth more because it is in its original frame, painted by the artist.

The picture will remain in the museum and will be on display from November 16 to January 12.

Ms Askari said the work was bought from the Autumn Exhibition before Lowry was well known.

“Lowry was yet to establish himself as a success, and there was certainly no indication then of the popularity of his work with the public today,” she said.

“It was painted just two years after his mother died – a powerful influence on his life, in that she refused to acknowledge Lowry’s artistic abilities.”

Lowry worked during the day as a rent collector in the Salford area, retiring at the age of 65 in 1952.

He painted at home in the evenings, typically between 10pm and 2am.

Later in life, he moved to Mottram-in-Longdendale, historically part of Cheshire and now part of Greater Manchester, bordering Derbyshire’s Peak District. He loved the landscape that the Peaks offered, experts said. Lowry died on February 23, 1976 in Woods Hospital, Glossop – giving Derbyshire people the right to lay claim to the artist as partly their own.