Lowry painted and drew many views of Peel Park whilst studying nearby at the Salford School of Art, housed in the Royal Technical College. The bandstand in its grounds became a popular subject for the artist. Another drawing of this subject is in the collection of The City of Salford, and is reproduced in M. Levy, The Drawings of L.S. Lowry, London, 1976, pl. 66.

This drawing was formerly in the collection of the Reverend Geoffrey Bennett, who Lowry had first met in Manchester in 1926 when he was working as a bank clerk with Lowry's cousin, Grace. He later moved to Cumbria but remained Lowry's life-long friend. Lowry regularly visited Bennett and his family in Cleator Moor, and later in Maryport, where they enjoyed sketching together as Bennett was a keen artist himself (see note to lot 2). After leaving banking, Bennett was ordained as an Anglican clergyman in 1962; Lowry always referred to him afterwards as `The Reverend Gentleman'. On Lowry's death in 1976, he conducted the artist's funeral service at Manchester's Southern Cemetery.

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