Lord's is hosting an exhibition of rare cricket scenes by LS Lowry.
The artist is renowned for his landscapes of football matches and factory workers in England's industrial north, but his paintings of people playing cricket are less well known.
The display at Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in St John's Wood recognises Lowry's "major contribution to documenting working class people playing cricket," and hopes to tell a wider story about participation in the game.
The exhibition was opened last week by broadcaster and former England batsman Michael Atherton, who said it was good "to see a great Lancastrian painter with his works displayed" in Lord's Writing Room.
"This is the perfect room to show a little of Lowry in cricket," he said.
"If you're from Lancashire or Manchester, which I am, there's a very strong sense of time and place, and you recognise the candour and compassion in his work. It's a difficult post industrial scene, often in decline."
Despite living a stone's throw from Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Lowry wasn't a cricket buff and was known to take advice regarding fielding positions from his long-standing friend Alick Leggat, who was Honorary Treasurer and later President of Lancashire County Cricket Club.
The exhibition includes Cricket Match; and A Cricket Sight Board. (1964 – 1969) In a signed note on the back of the canvas Lowry declares it to be his "most successful crowd scene" among the hundreds that he painted.
A Cricket Match (1938) shows children playing on wasteland, while pencil sketch The Mill, Lunchtime, A Cricket Match (1940) depicts factory workers enjoying a game during their break. In The Mill Pendelbury, (1943) cricket is part of a day of recreation in the shadow of a factory.
Curator Charlotte Goodhew said: "He's known for his matchstick men, these amusing figures are flat and almost cartoon-like. He uses this artistic language to comment on society and working class people playing cricket in the industrial north in the 20th century."
She added: "We like to include as many people as possible and tell a lot of different stories. Cricket has an amazing history and it's nice to show the full picture."
Also in the exhibition are cricket scenes by Lancastrian Helen Bradley (1900–1979): Lowry encouraged her to paint her childhood memories of growing up in Oldham, and unlike Lowry, who preferred watching crowds to cricket, Bradley described, in paint and ink, her excitement for the game.
The exhibition runs until May 2024. https://www.lords.org/mcc/heritage-collections/lowry-exhibition
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