A PAINTING by LS Lowry of a Glasgow church that met an unholy end is estimated to fetch up to £250,000 at auction.

One of several Lowry's to go on sale, The Property of a Gentleman depicts “St Matthew’s Church” and was painted in 1947.

It is estimated to be sold for between £150,000 and £250,000.

The painting is believed to feature St Matthew’s Highlanders’ Memorial Church that stood in Bath Street.

The church was designed by Salmon & Black and was built around 1850 for a Free Church congregation but was gutted by fire in 1952.. The congregation became United Free in 1900 and joined the Church of Scotland at the union of 1929.

In 1941 St Matthew’s joined with the Highlanders’ Memorial to form St Matthew’s Highlanders’ Memorial.

The building was gutted by fire in 1952The site was sold to the flamboyant businessman A E Pickard, who was criticised for a long delay in demolishing the ruins of the building.

Another painting by Lowry of Berwick-upon-Tweed is set to raise up to £180,000.

It is one of a number by the artist that celebrate people swarming together which are going on sale.

Christie’s has announced its first ever stand alone Lowry sale with a lineup including what is thought to be his only rugby painting, showing a sea of fans spilling out of a stadium after a Rochdale Hornets match.

Other works include a packed queue of people outside a fish and chip shop called The Elite.

The oil of a crowded beach scene, thought a depiction of Spittal beach in Berwick-upon-Tweed, has an estimate of £130,000 and £180,000.

There is something about seeing “people who can swarm together as much as they like with no restrictions,” said Rachel Hidderley, a senior director in Christie’s modern British art department, although there are also works in the sale that depict single figures.

The sale, which will be held online, has been titled People Watching and includes 19 works with estimates ranging from £4,000 to £800,000.

The collection includes examples previously owned by Monty Bloom, Lowry’s most enthusiastic patron, and The Reverend Geoffrey Bennett.

Bloom, a successful business man from Southport formed a friendship with Lowry and upon visiting the artist’s studio for the first time, found that he preferred Lowry’s figure studies to the industrial landscapes and bought four paintings on the spot, including Man Searching a Dustbin (1960, estimate: £80,000- £120,000).

Lowry had found a patron for the pictures that he really wanted to paint, the people that he observed on the streets of Manchester.

Ms Hidderley said Lowry remained a hugely popular artist and one to whom people can easily relate.

“Visually he is unique; when you see a Lowry, you know you are looking at a Lowry and that makes him very accessible,” she said.

Christie’s said the sale would be led by three paintings, each with an estimate of £500,000 to £800,000: the rugby league painting, titled Coming From the Match (1959); an industrial panorama, Iron Works (1941) and The Elite Fish and Chip Shop (1949).

The aim had been to show different sides of Lowry.

A selection of the works will be available to view at Christie’s website from today. Bidding opens on June 15, with sale day on July 2.

In 2014 a Scottish work by Lowry sold for just £450.

A picture postcard of the Old Man of Wick in Caithness which was sent by the artist to his mother and was sold in an online auction.

The handwritten card - posted from the Pentland Hotel, Thurso, on Sunday, July 12, 1936 - was sold by Fraser’s Autographs.

Addressed to “My dear Mother”, the card read: “One or two views of round about Wick - 20 miles from here, I bussed it there yesterday afternoon - it is a terrible railway going from Inverness to here - but worth it. Do hope you aren’t feeling too quiet without me. Weather on the showery side, but much better than too hot. Laurie.”

A Lowry painting of Thurso sold for £842,500 at auction earlier that year .

Street Musicians features Lowry’s trademark matchstick figures and dogs but this time in Shore Street, Thurso.

Previously another Caithness work by the artist sold for nearly £900,000 when it went under the hammer as part of a collection which fetched more than £15 million in total.

Steps at Wick was painted in 1936 and shows the Black Stairs in Wick’s Pulteneytown area.

It was bought by a private London collector in 1993 and had not previously been seen in public for over 20 years.

Lowry, who grew up in Salford, was famous for his matchstick figure art and was a regular visitor to Scotland in the 1930s.

Lowry, who died in 1976 aged 88, has the record for the person to refuse the most honours - including a knighthood - turning down five between 1955 and 1976.

These included an OBE in the 1955 Birthday Honours List and a CBE in the 1961 New Year’s List.