The Beach is an offset lithograph by British artist L.S. Lowry which depicts the harbour at Deal in Kent and is based upon the oil painting of 1947. The original oil was produced after an energetic preliminary pencil sketch dated 1912 (fig. 1). The two distinct works were published as a pair with the title, Deal. Lowry returned to the early drawing thirty-five years later as reference for the related painting, Deal Sands 1947 from which this print is taken. Both were acquired by the late Mrs T.S. Eliot, wife of the famous poet and playwright, who amassed one of the finest collections of British art. The Beach is part of Lowry’s body of work which draws inspiration from the sea and the seaside. From an early age Lowry was fascinated by the sea. In his youth, holidays were spent at Lytham St Annes on the Fylde coast at Easter, and at Rhyl, on the north-west coast, during the Summer. In later life he commented, “I like to do seascapes. I’m very fond, now and then, of doing beach scenes... every so often I like to do them, and what interests me here is of course the shipping on the sea and the rivers and the sea itself... oh yes, I am very fond of the sea.”Lowry drew seascapes as early as 1902 and continued to explore this theme throughout his career These works vary remarkably in content and feeling, from enigmatic and ominously bare depictions that verge on the abstract, to lively scenes of leisurely seaside life, as in the present work. The resulting pictures vary greatly, from brightly-coloured, delicate sailing boats bobbing on calm waters, to massive industrial ships and tankers with broad bows, or beaches teaming with the residents of industrial towns at the seaside for their holiday, complete with empty expanses of sea and sky.