Acquired from Alex. Reid & Lefevre Gallery in London shortly after it was painted, Girl with Bow in Her Hair has remained in the same family collects ion until now, where it makes its first public appearance in fifty years. It belongs to a period of Lowry’s work in the 1960s where the artist increasingly turned to singular figure compositions, often on an intimate scale such as the present, and which stand in contrast to the populous, complex views of industrial town scenes with which Lowry established his reputation. Yet of course for anyone familiar with the artist’s work, Girl with Bow in Her Hair remains unmistakably ‘Lowry’ – the worked, chalky ground, the stylization of the figure and his trademark touch of red in the exaggerated bow of the girl. It is test.mes nt to Lowry’s artistic vision that such seemingly simple works captivate the viewer as powerfully as any of his panoramic townscapes.

The heightened concern with the individual - and more tellingly the isolation of the individual - in paintings of this period is also a key Lowry theme. He depicted a cast of characters in his paintings, and those that appealed strongest were those with struggles in life – physical deformity, ugliness, poverty. When they appear in his crowded urban scenes, even then there is a sense of disconnect between the figures, each living their solitary existence as Lowry – the detached observer, himself lonely – did. Stripping away details in his paintings of the 1960s - to the absolute extreme in the present work which is devoid of any other reference - allowed Lowry to intensify his focus on individuality. Yet, and herein lies the great power of Lowry’s work, these individual figures are also representative, speaking to and continuing to speak to those who encounter his work. Lowry was a master of instilling apparently mundane subject matter with an uncommon profoundness.