Lowry portrait fetches 'record' £1.7m at auction

Lowry's subjects bear a resemblance to his cousins, Billie and Bertie Shephard, and their father

A 1950 painting of a father and his two sons by LS Lowry has fetched £1.7m at auction in London - a record price for a portrait by the Manchester artist.

Described as a "timeless glimpse into street life", the work had been tipped to fetch between £1.5m and £2.5m.

Born in 1887, Laurence Stephen Lowry was renowned for his seemingly simple depictions of working-class life.

The record price for one of his works was set in 2011 when his 1949 landscape The Football Match sold for £5.6m.

Father and Two Sons was previously owned by Monty Bloom, a key patron of Lowry's, before being bought by collector Frank Cohen in the late 1990s.

Tuesday's auction at Sotheby's also saw a 1942 drawing by Dame Barbara Hepworth, Forms in Movement (Circle), sell for £257,000.