In a clear case of life imitating art, a painting by LS Lowry of a crowded auction house with the hammer about to fall at a sale is due to be sold at Sotheby’s next month. It is estimated at £ 1.8million.

The auction, a large-scale work completed in 1958, is one of the few interior scenes of the Lancashire-born painter who has gone on to become one of the UK’s most beloved artists.

The photo shows a bustling auction house, filled with people crowding or crowding into benches. There are familiar characters from Lowry’s outdoor cityscapes: a dog on a leash, a baby sitting in a stroller. Further on, the auctioneer and his clerks are on a platform; on either side, paintings are stacked and furniture piled up ready to be sold.

The painting “captures the buzz of an auction in a way that only Lowry, with his distinctive iconography, could,” said Frances Christie, vice president of Sotheby’s UK and Ireland.

Lowry, an avid collector of Pre-Raphaelite clocks and art, regularly attended auctions in Manchester and London. “He often kept track of his own photos passing through Sotheby’s later in his life, showing an appreciation for his work that stood in stark contrast to the start of his career when he struggled to be recognized,” said Christie .

“The pleasant circularity of The Auction’s appearance at Sotheby’s would no doubt have satisfied Lowry’s wry sense of humor.”

Lowry, a modest man who declined honors, including the title of knight, found success as an artist in his later years. Although he did not sell a single work in his first exhibition in 1921, his paintings were in auction houses before his death in 1976 at the age of 88.

Charlie Minter, post-war modern art specialist at Sotheby’s, said: “Lowry very rarely did interiors. We are very familiar with his cityscapes in factories and townhouses, but this has to do with his fascination with this aspect of the art world and the lives of those involved in buying and selling.

“As a social observer, he would have loved this scene, the scene of an auction. There’s the Lowry magic, it’s very buzzing, it’s like a snapshot of how the auctions were. They are more formal and professional now.

The record-breaking price for a Lowry is held by his Piccadilly Circus painting, which sold for £ 5.6million in 2011.