Father and Two Sons (1950)

L.S. Lowry’s Father and Two Sons (1950) is a typically morose piece of art which we might expect to come from the easel of the famous Salfordian.

The triple portrait is one of his most striking compositions. The father, and the son in the red bow tie, meet the viewer's gaze with a mixture of wariness, defeat and resentment. The second son seems more distracted and disengaged. The low position of the figures on the canvas emphasises their drooping shoulders and adds to their air of dejection. Despite donning their Sunday best, it is clear that their lives have not been easy. Had they lived in 2025, those dead eyes and pinched faces would likely be accompanied by dark tracksuits, puffa jackets and spliffs, while the father would be notable for his absence. 

Whether dejected or distracted, our upbringings and family lives often mar and scar us, regardless of whether an individual parent, or their circumstances, may be blamed. In Christ, however, we are adopted into the family of God, becoming heirs and co-heirs with Christ. Had these three known such a wonderful truth applied, there might have been a smile on those weary sets of lips, and twinkles in those bleak, harrowing eyes.

...just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:4-6, New King James Version