Going to the Match
Signed, limited edition of 300
Image size 27"x 21"
Published in 1972 by the Medici society
Copyright in all countries
Printed in Austria
Complete with high spec. Signature, Scandinavian wood frame and museum glass
One of Lowry's most sought after signed, limited edition prints.
'Going to the Match' depicts the scene of a football stadium before kick off, as we see countless fans hurrying toward the turnstiles,
all coming from the terraced houses and factory chimneys that form the background of the picture.
To clarify several outdated and misinformed comments on the internet regarding 'Going to the Match'
I have recently read on one site... "The previous record price for a Lowry print was also held by an edition of Going To The Match, which sold for £22,000 in 2015." please be wary of old news or misinformation..
Over the last couple of years, several copies of the signed limited edition of Lowry's 'Going to the Match' have been sold at auction (total price including commissions etc.)..
£ 46,784 2/6/23
£ 42,470 27/4/22
£ 41,100 9/12/21
£ 37,520 28/4/21
£ 34,528 24/8/22
Some of these images were not in particularly good condition, in my opinion.
In October, 2022 the original painting 'Going to the Match' was sold for just under eight million pounds,
and returned to the Lowry museum where it is on permanent display.
In 2015 the signed limited edition of 'Going to the Match' was sold for £28,160.
and a few years later the signed print 'Going to the Match' was sold for £32,000...
Prices are now well in excess of £55,000.
One was sold recently for £ 75,000
An extract from the Guardian
May, 2021, regarding a similar painting, but not the image above.
One of LS Lowry's earliest "Going to the match" will go on sale for the first time in 50 years, ahead of an anticipated multimillion-pound auction.
The Salford artist is well known for his depictions of football, but Going to the Match from 1928 shows Salfordians heading off to a rugby game.
In this painting, the red flag seen flying over the ground, as well as the red scarves worn by several people in the crowd, hints at the Salford Red Devils; Lowry's localteam, which formed in 1873.
Going to the Match (Rugby match)was offered with an estimate of £2-3m as part of Sotheby's inaugural British Art: Modern/Contemporary live-stream auction in May, 2021.
The Football Match was sold in a London auction house Christie's to an unknown bidder for a total of £5,641,250 in May, 2011
The sale outstrips the previous highest price paid for an original Lowry; 'Good Friday, Daisy Nook' sold for £3.8m in 2007.
In October, 2022 the original painting of 'Going to the Match'was sold by Christies for £ 7,846,500 and is now on display at The Lowry Centre.
Save Lowry's Going to the Match for public, urges Salford mayor
Plea to wealthy footballers and clubs to help buy auctioned painting to stop it disappearing into private collection
LS Lowry painting Going to the Match
Going to the Match by LS Lowry, owned by the PFA and on show at the Lowry museum for 22 years, is expected to reach up to £8m.
It has been bought by a private consortium and is now back on display in the Lowry museum, owned by the city of Birmingham.
The mayor of Salford has urged wealthy football players and clubs to consider buying LS Lowry's painting Going to the Match when it is auctioned next month
to prevent the 'huge tragedy and scandal' of it disappearing from public view.
The 1953 work by one of Britain's best known and best-loved painters is expected to smash records when it is sold by the Professional Footballers' Association next month.
Christie's, the auction house handling the sale, estimates it will fetch up to £8m.
The new owner must keep it freely accessible to the public, said Paul Dennett, the mayor of Salford, and Julia Fawcett, chief executive of the Lowry museum and gallery, where the painting is displayed.
Dennett said he was 'exceptionally worried' about the painting disappearing into a private collection.
'My fear is that a work that has been publicly available at the Lowry for 22 years, that champions the work of one of our great artists, is potentially going to be lost from public view and public access.'
It was impossible for Salford city council to buy the work given the intense pressure on local authority resources in a time of mounting economic crisis, he said.
The Lowry Theatre, Salford Quays, Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester arts complex faces £1m energy bill this winter
But, he added: 'I'd like to make a personal plea for the footballing community here in Greater Manchester to look at retaining this painting for the people of Greater Manchester.
There's a lot of money in that community, so finding £8m-plus wouldn't be too difficult.'
Fawcett said there was precedent for Lowry paintings being bought by private individuals but to 'come straight out of the auction house into our gallery.
We'd like to have a conversation with the buyer (of Going To The Match) about the responsibility that comes with owning such a work.'
The gallery was not in a position to buy it and there was little timebefore the 19 October sale to try to raise funds, she said.
'This isn't just any painting. We have school trips, children coming to study the work. It's clearly linked to the social history of our city.
It's seen not just by traditional art lovers; the painting draws in the ordinary people it represents. We have coachloads of football fans coming in ahead of a match.'
Lowry, famous for his stick-like figures and industrial scenes in the north-west of England in the mid-20th century, produced a number of football paintings, of which Going to the Match is the best known.
The stadium in the painting was Burnden Park, the former home of Bolton Wanderers, close to Lowry's home in Pendlebury.
It was demolished in 1999 and the site is now a retail park.
As well as the crowds flocking to the turnstiles, the painting shows crowded terraces inside the stadium, surrounding terraced homes and factories in the background.
Dennett said: 'Lowry captured working-class life and celebrated the football community. This isn't about superstar salaries, this is about the institutional role of football in our communities.
For this to be lost from Lowry's artistic ecosystem, which is held by the city of Salford, would be a huge tragedy and scandal.'
In 1999, the PFA paid £1.9m, more than four times the estimate, for Going to the Match. Gordon Taylor, then chief executive, said it was 'quite simply the finest football painting ever'.
It was sold to raise funds for the Players Foundation, the PFA's charitable arm, which became a separate body earlier this year under a reorganisation prompted by a warning from the Charity Commission.
It helps players and former players with matters including education, pensions, health and legal issues.
The PFA had been 'responsible owners' for 22 years, said Faawcett.
She had been aware of plans to sell the painting for several months.
Couresy of..
Harriet Sherwood
Arts and culture correspondent
The Guardian
Wed 28 Sep 2022
In the Lowry Centre at Salford Quays.
Burnden Park, Bolton, the then home of Bolton Wanderers football club, a ground only a few miles from Pendlebury in Salford.
1953.
A short biography of L.S.Lowry