LONDON.- The first recorded work by L. S. Lowry, Yachts was drawn when the celebrated Lancashire artist was only 15 years old. It will be offered with an estimate of £30,000 - 50,000 in Bonhams’ Modern British and Irish Art sale on 18th November at Bonhams New Bond Street.

Yachts was drawn at Lytham St. Annes, in the Fylde district of Lancashire, where the Lowry family often spent their summer holidays. It seems it was these summers that first sparked Lowry’s fascination with the sea. Alongside the distinctive figurative images of urban scenes that we are so familiar with today, images of the yachts at Lytham are a central part of Lowry’s œuvre from this first drawing to his later work in the 1970s.

“Yachts has a freshness to it that displays Lowry’s instinct as a young artist. For me, it is one of his most personal works,” said Matthew Bradbury, Bonhams Director of Modern British and Irish Art. “It is a fittingly poignant introduction to Lowry’s long and celebrated career.”

Painted in 1902, Yachts preceded Lowry’s time at the Manchester School of Art by three years. There, he studied as an evening pupil in preparatory antique and freehand drawing and produced classical work before he began to develop his distinctively stylized landscapes and ‘matchstick’ figures.

Yachts is one of ten Lowry drawings included in the 18th November sale, a selection of works that together give a fascinating insight into Lowry’s journey as an artist.

Factory Gate, estimated at £40,000 - 60,000, is emblematic of Lowry’s signature style and marks a clear contract to Yachts in style and subject matter. The 1953 pencil drawing explores the idea of division between working life and general daily routine in the north-west of England.

A later work, The Gossips, Two Ladies, signed and dated ‘L. S. Lowry 1961’, shows Lowry’s later shift towards focusing more intently on single or small groups of figures. The personality of the ‘matchstick’ figures in Lowry’s industrial landscapes here take centre-stage. Two Gossips, Two Ladies is estimated at £80,000 - 150,000.