Name: The Viaduct Stockport
Brand: L S Lowry
Rating: 5 (231 reviews)

Track auction value trend

The value of L S Lowry's The Viaduct Stockport (signed) is estimated to be worth between £3,350 and £5,000. This lithograph print, created in 1969, has shown consistent value growth over the past five years. In the last 12 months, the artwork has not been sold at auction. This work is rare to the market, having been sold 3 times since its initial sale in April 2006. The hammer price in the last five years has ranged from £3,762 in September 2021 to £4,762 in September 2021. The average annual growth rate of this piece is currently -15%. The edition size of this artwork is limited to 75.

Auction Date

Auction House

Location

Hammer Price

Return to Seller

Buyer Paid

September 2021

Christie's London

United Kingdom

April 2021

Christie's London

United Kingdom

April 2006

Bonhams Leeds

United Kingdom

Meaning & Analysis

Printed in 1969, The Viaduct, Stockport is a typical scene by L.S. Lowry that captures urban life in North West England. Depicting everyday life in Manchester, houses populate the foreground with Lowry’s ‘matchstick-men’ unassumingly going about their daily lives. The stylised figures lack definition and are all almost identical to one another. Often caught in motion, the matchstick figures are a signature feature of Lowry’s prints and have become synonymous with his now iconic style.

Attention is focused on the impressive viaduct, a major pioneering structure of the early railway age, emblematic of urbanisation and industrialisation. A train traversing the railway is captured against columns of smoke exuding from the factories portrayed in the picture’s background. The large structure, composed of a series of arches, towers over the tiny figures, making them seem even smaller and insignificant.

The print reflects Lowry’s interest in industrial landscapes and the quotidian activities of the people that inhabited them. Captured against this backdrop, the matchstick figures blend in with the industrial environment. This dual focus on the industrial and the human is a defining characteristic of Lowry’s style of realism. Like many of Lowry’s urban landscapes, The Viaduct, Stockport centres on the northern industrial working class experience.