Image copyright Sotheby's Image caption Auctioneers Sotheby's described the painting as 'Lowry at his best'

A painting by LS Lowry described as one of his "most exciting works" has been sold for £2.3 million.

Station Approach, Manchester, was painted in 1960 and depicts the scene outside the London and North Western Railway Exchange Station.

It was sold on Tuesday at a sale of modern and post-war British art at Sotheby's auction house.

Sotheby's spokeswoman Frances Christie described it as "a superb example of Lowry at his very best".

She added: "Station Approach, Manchester is one of Lowry's most exciting works to emerge on to the market in recent years.

LS Lowry Born in November 1887, Laurence Stephen Lowry lived and worked around Manchester and Salford

After being rejected by the Manchester Municipal College of Art in 1903, he continued to take private art classes

In 1953 he was appointed an official artist at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

In 1968 he rejected a knighthood proposed by the prime minister in the New Year's Honours list

Lowry died on 23 February 1976, seven months before the opening of a major retrospective of his work at the Royal Academy, London Source: Sotheby's

"Lowry was a master at portraying the energy and vitality of everyday life and in Station Approach, Manchester he captures the hustle and bustle of the crowds heading home after a hard day's work."

Built in 1884 and closed in 1969, the Victorian front of the station had already been taken down by the time Lowry painted the work.

The station, which lay close to Manchester Cathedral, has since been fully demolished and the station approach is now a car park.

A collection of 13 paintings by LS Lowry sold at auction in March for a total price of more than £15m.

And in November, a painting of a scene in a Caithness town by the artist sold for £890,500. In 2011, The Football Match, painted in 1949 and which depicts hundreds of the artist's signature stick figures, sold for a record £5.6m.