LS Lowry rare Seaburn seascape sells for more than £1m

The auction house said The North Sea was one of the finest examples of Lowry's rare large-scale seascapes xx

An "important seascape" by renowned artist LS Lowry has sold at auction for more than a million pounds.

Although the artist was better known for depicting the north-west of England, The North Sea shows a view from Seaburn, Sunderland.

The work, which had been in private hands since a year after it was painted in 1966, sold for £1,070,381.

Tennants Auctioneers in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, said Lowry had been "fascinated by the sea".

From the early 1940s he began to paint pure seascapes, depicting nothing but sea and sky.

"These rare, seemingly simple yet highly sophisticated works are far removed from the bustling industrial streets scenes for which he is better known," the auction house said.

The painting demonstrates Lowry's skilful use of colour to create a monochrome effect

The majority of his seascapes depict the North West, and the resorts of Lytham and Rhyl, where he spent holidays.

When, after the death of his mother, he was free to choose his own holiday destinations, Lowry frequently stayed for long periods of time at the Seaburn Hotel, to "which he became deeply attached", the auctioneers said.

"He always stayed in the same room, which looked straight out at the empty expanse of the North Sea, the water and sky melding at the horizon," they said.

The painting was sold by the estate of a Lancaster woman who had studied to become a classical pianist in Perugia and Paris.

After returning to the North West to marry, she regularly met Lowry in Morecambe.

Tennants said she recounted his delight in the simple pleasures of eating ice cream and his visible enjoyment of the seaside, and the pair bonded over their shared love of the sea.