Spurned, snubbed and sniggered at, Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887-1976) became Britain’s most famous and best-loved 20th century painter, whose works now sell for millions.
He called himself a “simple man”, but he was the strangest of men who made his will over to a much younger woman whom he befriended simply because she shared his surname.
His day job was not as an artist but as a rent collector in the slum areas of the city.
His domestic set-up was frugal as well as odd: the collection of clocks in his living room were all set at different times and he kept a suitcase by the front door so that if anyone unwanted knocked he could claim he was just about to go away.
In this talk Ed Glinert at Gorton Monastery explores the man behind the paintings, taking you through the central Manchester haunts he visited and depicted.
