BUILT ENVIRONMENT

Critical Evaluation
Built Environment

Lawrence Stephen Lowry was born on 1st November 1877 and was brought up in Manchester in England. While working as an insurance agent he went to ‘life drawing’ evening classes. Adolphe Valette was interested in him.
Many of Lowry’s paintings were of houses with windows and chimneys and industrial scenes of mill men leaving work. The first medium Lowry used was pastels and he used these to paint his first industrial scenes.
He organised a travelling exhibition and was offered a knighthood but he turned this down and received doctorates from the universities of Salford and Liverpool in 1975.
A painting by Lowry which I have investigated is called ‘VE Day’. The painting was done in 1945. I would describe the painting as a townscape as you see people walking around the town centre.
The medium that was used was oil on canvas. The colours used on the buildings were very dull and realistic and the sky colour looked very faded as w...