Study for ‘Dwellings, Ordsall Lane, Salford’ 1927

Curator: This is L.S. Lowry's 'Study for ‘Dwellings, Ordsall Lane, Salford’. Editor: Oh, it feels…bleak, doesn't it? The buildings loom, but there's a strange energy with all those matchstick figures scurrying about. Curator: Indeed. Lowry, born in 1887, often depicted the industrial landscapes of Northern England. Here, he sketches the Ordsall Lane dwellings using pencil on paper, a technique revealing the underlying structure. Editor: I notice how he plays with perspective, flattening the space, making the buildings seem almost like cardboard cutouts. The repetition of windows and the way the street narrows…it's quite claustrophobic. Curator: It's a study, of course, allowing us a glimpse into his artistic process, his focus on the architectural forms and the human condition within them. He’s really stripped it back to the bare bones. Editor: Those bare bones certainly convey a particular mood. It's a compelling, if somewhat somber, reflection on urban life, even in this preparatory stage.