LS Lowry’s iconic painting, A Cricket Match, is heading to auction and has been given an estimated guide price of £800,000 to £1.2million.

The work, which was created in 1938, was last sold in 1996 when it set a then world record for a Lowry piece and was sold at auction for £282,000.

“Coinciding with the return of the Cricket World Cup to the UK presents a fantastic opportunity for collectors to acquire a different element of Lowry’s world view,” Simon Hucker, a senior specialist in modern and postwar art at Sotheby’s, said in a statement.

Hucker added: “It is a really good Lowry. If feels like a natural scene, but it has all kinds of things going on, it leads your eye from one thing to another. It is really very complex, the way he controls colour, white, black, dirty green. He is very good at creating a mood through colour.”

The image depicts children playing cricket on wasteland in Broughton, Salford, who are overshadowed by a decrepit building with smashed windows as plumes of smoke rise form chimneys.

“A lot is happening, the kids are joyous, playing, and the guys are smoking and chatting,” Hucker continued.

“Lowry is a very important figure in art, but there are different types of Lowrys – the well-known industrial settings, but also seascapes, pictures of different, often odd figures, and empty landscapes.”

Before the painting heads to auction in London on June 18th it will go on display at the Lowry in Salford between 23-27 May.

The work is being sold by US-based collectors Neil and Gina Smith.