A closer look: Lowry’s coronation view
In 1953, L.S. Lowry was appointed an official artist at the coronation of Elizabeth II. He could not imagine why he was chosen to capture such a grand occasion.
Lowry arrived at Buckingham Palace a lot later than the time he was told to which was six o’clock in the morning. Before he left for London, he grumbled quite a bit to his family about having to journey all the way there. He wore a raincoat the whole day, correctly anticipating changeable British weather.
As he sat in the stands, he drew nothing. Later, he confessed to his friend and fellow artist David Carr that he returned the next morning to do a few sketches, though he still had not idea what he would paint.
‘It will sort itself out,’ he wrote to [Carr]. The Ministry of Works apparently gave little in terms of direction as to what he should produce.
Laurence Stephen Lowry, The Procession passing the Queen Victoria Memorial, Coronation
During the procession, Lowry found himself distracted by the crowd, not by the grand spectacle of the coronation. ‘Some excellent incidents took place […] which fascinated me but not, I should imagine, what the Ministry of Works want.’
He did eventually finish his painting. By August, two whole months after the coronation, he had completed a picture of ‘a straightforward view from [his] seat at the top of the Mall’. He sent it to the Ministry of Works and was paid £100 for his work. The painting was part of ‘The Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II: Paintings and Drawings’, an exhibition held in Whitehall Gardens, in November and December 1953. From there, it was sent to Moscow to hang in the British Embassy, and is now on display in the Consulate General in New York.
Explore the coronation with activities and stories inspired by our Collection.