L. S. Lowry

Laurence Stephen Lowry was an English painter of the industrial towns of north-west England, best known for crowds of thin matchstick figures in streets and around mills and factories. He worked for most of his life as a rent collector in Manchester and painted in his spare time, studying under the French painter Adolphe Valette. His best-known paintings include Going to the Match and Coming from the Mill. The Lowry arts centre in Salford holds the largest public collection of his work.