L.S. Lowry - The Pond

L.S. Lowry 'The Pond' (Tate Collection, Liverpool)

British artist, L.S. Lowry captures the urban life of towns in Lancashire in striking clarity.
This painting is a fantasy, combining several elements known to the artist, the rising smokestacks of the mills and factories, as well as the monumental horizontality of the Stockport Viaduct.

Here we see a northern town in England, but there is a similarity with the Venetian urban typology.

At the centre of the scene is a square, a campo, upon which boats can be seen, painted black and built for pleasure.
The mix of industrial as well as domestic architectures is made clear to the viewer by the distinct urban forms. Adhering to simple geometric forms, the barrel vaulted roofs of the warehouses, the repeated gables of the mill, and the long pitched roofs of the terraced housing forms a means to identify different sectors which make the whole of a Lancashire community townscape.