He did become very famous during his lifetime, but it took many years; for a long time he worked with little recognition.
He was born Laurence Stephen Lowry in 1887 in Old Trafford, Lancashire. His father was a clerk and his mother a teacher, though she gave this up after he was born. He grew up mostly in a suburb of Manchester, and didn’t receive formal art training as a boy, although he showed an interest in painting from a very early age and was given several books of art by his parents.
When Lowry was in his teens the family had money troubles and moved to the cheaper location of Pendlebury. This industrial town had the mills and factories that were to inspire Lowry’s work all his life. For example, one of his better known paintings and perhaps the first one to show the famous ‘Lowry style’ was ‘Coming from the Mill’ in 1917. However, when he left school he couldn’t afford to work as an artist, instead taking a job with a rent collecting company. He was always painting in his spare time though – in fact he got a lot of ideas for his pictures while walking around the city in the course of his job - and took lessons including a course at the Manchester School of Art, which he found very inspiring. He also studied at a college in Salford; in fact he continued studying art until 1925, and gradually developed his distinctive style over these years. He was first noticed by a critic from the Manchester Guardian in1921
After completing his studies, and while still working as a rent collector, in 1932 Lowry became the breadwinner and main carer for his mother, who was ill and suffered from depression. She seems to have been very difficult to live with, but he looked after her until her death in 1939. He carried on painting during this time, doing most of his work at night after she had gone to bed.
It was after his mother died that he began to become known, with his first London exhibition taking place in the same year; he was very upset by her death and for a time was not able to enjoy his success, wishing that she could have been alive to share it. After the start of World War II his reputation grew. He became an official war artist in 1943, and after the war ended was awarded an honorary MA from the University of Manchester.
By the 1950s he was very well known, especially in his native Manchester but in Britain generally too. When he was 77 a big celebration was held in his honour in Eccles. Later in his life his pictures began to be reproduced on a large scale; one of his paintings, Coming out of School, was even printed on a postage stamp in a series commemorating great British artists in 1968.
He was offered a number of honours including the OBE, but he refused them all, in fact he may have turned down more honours than any other famous person. Despite being now very famous, he was still a quiet, private man who didn’t welcome public attention.
Lowry died at the age of 88 in 1976. He left almost £300,000 and his paintings – which are worth much more, to a relative.
A Lowry retrospective was held in London’s Tate Gallery in 2013. Today Lowry’s fame is as great as it was in his later years and he is still one of Britain’s most recognised and best loved artists.
You can read more about his life and work here.