Additional Images

Provenance:

Within a Silverwood Productions, Blackburn frame label verso;
The artist’s studio;
Gifted to Mrs. Westwell (the present owner’s grandmother), Manchester, England, UK;
By descent to the granddaughter, Toronto, ON, circa 1986

Note:

Mrs. Westwell became a good friend of Harold Francis Riley. She was one of the first collectors to buy his paintings.

Riley, born December 21, 1934 in Salford, Lancashire, England, befriended the artist, L.S. Lowry (1887–1976), when he was 11 years old. It is reported in the Daily Mail newspaper review that “Nobody knew Lowry better than artist Harold Riley.” Lowry awarded Riley his first art prize at a Salford Grammar School art exhibition in 1945. Lowry helped Riley sell his first artwork to Albert Frape, the curator at the Salford (City) Art Gallery school in 1945. Referred to as both “Lowry’s protégé” and his “partner in mischief,” on the eve of Lowry’s retrospective at the Tate in 1976, Riley states, “‘It was the first picture I sold and Lowry was responsible… he had an immense kindness.’” Riley was Lowry’s strongest supporter and stated, “technically he (Lowry) was a master. His control, the way he put on paint or applied various glazes he himself made, was so sophisticated.”

Riley believed his main work was to document the city and his life-cycle in Salford in paintings, drawings and photographs. His deep affection for his home town cemented a friendship with L.S. Lowry. Following Albert Frape’s suggestion, Lowry and Riley worked together on the Salford City project until the end of the 20th Century. “Frape said to Lowry, ‘I think it would be rather nice to have this city recorded for a century – you’ve done the first 50 years,’ and then Lowry turned and asked me (Riley) to do the second 50.”

The Salford City Council created an archive and studio for Riley in the conservation area around the old fire station on the Crescent in Salford.