Norman Cornish
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Norman Stansfield Cornish (18 November 1919 – 1 August 2014) was an English miner and an artist, particularly in the field of painting, focusing on mining life and community.


Biography

Norman Cornish was born in 1919 in Spennymoor, (later to house the Spennymoor Settlement) in
County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...
in
North East England North East England, commonly referred to simply as the North East within England, is one of nine official regions of England. It consists of County DurhamNorthumberland, , Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and part of northern North Yorkshire. ...
. He started work as a miner in 1933, at the age of 14, and continued to work as a miner after his painting career was established, until he retired to become a full-time artist in 1966. Married to Sarah, the couple had two children, John and Ann. Cornish died in 2014.


Career

Cornish joined the "Pitman's Academy" art school, in the Spennymoor Settlement, at the age of 15, becoming known as a "pit painter", and was the last surviving member of the Spennymoor institute. A former miner, he was known for his pictures of mining community life. Other artistic contemporaries of Cornish from the Spennymoor Settlement included Herbert Dees, Robert Heslop and Tom McGuinness. Cornish was granted an honorary Master of Arts degree by
Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...
in 1974, and an honorary doctorate by Sunderland University in 2012. He was a contemporary and friend of the artist
L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Greater Manchester (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its ...
.


Artworks

Cornish's painting, "Bar Scene" was found to contain a self-portrait of the artist on the enclosed back side of the canvas in 2024. Potentially unknown for 60 years, the self-portrait is the 29th known of Cornish.


Legacy

To mark the 100th anniversary of Cornish's birth, the
Bowes Museum The Bowes Museum is an art museum, art gallery in the town of Barnard Castle, in County Durham in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of John Bowes (art collector), Jo ...
organised the first "major retrospective" of Cornish's work. The exhibition was scheduled to run from November 2019 to February 2020. An exhibition of some of Cornish's 269 sketchbooks was scheduled for display over the same period at
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
's Palace Green Library. In 2019, a 'Norman Cornish Trail' was created in Spennymoor to allow people to follow a 1.5 mile route to view many of the scenes painted by Cornish. A room within the art gallery at Spennymoor Town Hall has been dedicated to exhibiting paintings by Cornish.


References


External links


Artist's website
* 1919 births 2014 deaths English miners Ashington Group {{UK-painter-20thC-stub