Children Walking Up Steps - Laurence Stephen Lowry RA

The figure studies that Lowry chose to paint, following the landscapes, were closely observed, and in the case of Children Walking up Steps, the importance of the figures is vital to the success of the painting. The industrial landscape although still clearly visible in the background, plays a far less prominent role, other than as a record of the changing world visible through the partially constructed steps and what seems to be a black slag heap just featuring in the very foreground. Lowry has used the steps in this painting as a clever device to maximise the number of figures in the composition, filling not just the foreground, but the centre ground too, from left to right. This marks a radical change of direction from the traditional composition of his industrial landscapes, where the eye is drawn through the painting into the far distance.

Laurence Stephen Lowry is famous for painting scenes of life in the industrial districts of North West England in the mid-20th century. L. S. Lowry developed a distinctive style of painting and is best known for his urban landscapes peopled with human figures often referred to as "matchstick men". Lowry painted mysterious un-populated landscapes, brooding portraits and the unpublished "marionette" works, which were only found after his death.