LS Lowry feared his paintings would be worthless, interviews reveal

LS Lowry was convinced his paintings would be worthless after his death, he confided in a previously unheard interview. Although the artist had enjoyed some success in his final years, Lowry could never have imagined he would become one of Britain’s best-loved artists or that his paintings would sell for millions of pounds.

Going to the Match, his 1953 painting of crowds of spectators streaming into a football stadium, sold for £7.8m in 2022. Sir Ian McKellen portrays him in a BBC documentary, LS Lowry: The Unheard Tapes, which draws on a trove of previously unheard audio recordings.

From 1972, over a period of four years, Lowry gave his longest, most revealing interview to a young fan, Angela Barratt. She died in 2022 and the tapes remained hidden in her Manchester home until now. In the tapes Lowry says: "Some day, you may be walking down some street and look into a junk shop window.

Britain, Manchester

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