From empty seascapes, to depicting big and small boats out at sea and populated beach scenes of North England and Wales, bodies of water were a powerful point of inspiration for the L.S. Lowry and the present lot presents a further manifestation on this preoccupying subject for the artist.

Lowry only first ventured across the border to Scotland fairly later on in his life, visiting Glasgow in 1946 and 1947, the latter being when Queen’s Dock, Glasgow was painted. Shipyards like Queen’s Dock, which sat on the bank of the River Clyde, particularly drew Lowry in due to their connection and integral role within both industry and shipping between the UK and the rest of the world.

Furthermore, Glaswegian shipyards had particular importance during the war, where the huge manufacturing of machinery and vessels took place and aided allied forces. Large cranes, like the one pictured in the left background of Queen’s Dock, and often found as such shipyards, also helped with the loading and unloading large steam trains and in the building of grand naval vessels such as the ones in the centre and to the right.

The Glasgow docks area had also been bombed in 1941 by axis forces, leading much to be rebuilt, so perhaps paintings like the present lot were Lowry’s awe and ode to the triumph of modern technology and industry, as many of his industrial city scenes allude to.

The strength and impact of the two cargo ships in Queen’s Dock is highlighted by Lowry in his particular attention to detail in depicting their broad bows and mass of body, with a big cloud of smoke coming from the large chimney. They almost seem to dwarf the figures in the foreground in scale, of whom seem to be conversing in hushed tones or hurrying back home to their families after a long day’s work. The structure of the crane and the gate to the dockside also stand out through the artist’s bold black strokes and add to the overall sense of stature and industrial strength in the composition. The smaller boats further add to the scale of the bigger boats and even hint at the kinds of crews and functions that these gigantic boats were able to perform.

The body of water which the boats rest in the present work is depicted more in a way that Lowry would do for his empty seascapes: it has a myriad of tones and reflections, hinting at a slight ebbings of the waves against the edge of the dock. Lowry first became interested in the sea as a child, and he became familiar with many beaches in the North East and North West of England. His seascapes have also been interpreted as being a reflection of the artist’s own isolation and contemplation of the world around him.

Once home to all the major shipping routes and lines into Scotland and beyond, the Queen’s Dock began to decline in the 1950s, and perhaps this is a change Lowry had already begun to notice while painting Queen’s Dock. Here, he has chosen to paint the ships empty and not in use, while just a couple of people walk rather sedately across the foreground, not invoking a sense of a bustling naval centre. Queen’s Dock closed permanently in 1977, and so Lowry’s picture stands not only as a fine and typical example of his oeuvre, but also as a relic of a particular industrial golden age in the UK. The present painting had been a key work on long term loan in the Salford Museum which then became The Lowry, opening in the newly renovated Salford Quays in 2000, and it has been featured in several exhibitions in its t.mes there. There is a similar version of the present painting entitled Cranes and Ships, Glasgow Docks, also executed in 1947, in Glasgow Museum’s collects ion.