A RETROSPECTIVE exhibition on the life and career of one of the region's most loved artists– from boy miner to critically acclaimed painter– will be held at The Bowes Museum.

Norman Cornish: The Definitive Collection will open at the Barnard Castle museum almost 100 years to the day after the artist's birth in Spennymoor, County Durham.

Greenfield Arts honours Norman Cornish for centenary celebrations

More than 60 works including pastels, charcoals and oil paintings from public and private collections– some of which are previously unseen– will be on display between November 16 and February 23.

Mr Cornish’s work has an enduring popularity and his legacy is an immediate and accessible social documentary of a bygone era.

At the age of 14 he followed his father and grandfather's footsteps into a career as a miner which would span four decades.

On his first day at the colliery, he recalled: “The men climbed the steep steps of the gantry; their swaying oil lamps looked like fireflies. Then I saw a mass of railings, steps, girders and wires. I thought it looked like a great, steel spider’s web.”

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Alongside that, he developed his artistic ability at the Sketching Club at the Spennymoor Settlement.

Warden Bill Farrell advised him to “paint what you know” and he went on to chronicle everyday life in a mining community with honest depictions of miners, the harsh working environment, the pub and the sociability of street life with its chip van horse-drawn carts, miners at leisure, gossiping women in pinnies and children playing.

Mr Cornish, who died in 2014, painted many versions of the pit road. It was a road he walked for some 30 years or more, so naturally it became a significant part of his life. With telegraph poles looming like crucifixes, characters struggle along reminiscent of a kind of Calvary scene. To watch the man ahead plodding resignedly was a subject he felt demanded to be drawn again and again.

“I made drawings of pub interiors in days past because I was fascinated by the men standing at the bar, drinking and talking or sitting playing dominoes. I was attracted by the wonderful shapes they made in their various attitudes,” he once said.

The retrospective will also include some of his commissions which ranged from portraits and industrial scenes to a visit to Paris for Tyne Tees Television where he was encouraged by the producer to critically appraise the art of the French capital through the eyes of the Northern artist.

Some of his industrial commissions included the Port of Tyne Authority’s request for him to capture in oils their “Roll-on, Roll-off” facility at North Shields and The River Pageant, commemorating 900 years of Newcastle’s history, as well as British Oxygen’s commission to depict industrial scenes at its Birtley site near Gateshead. The first two of these will be seen by the public for the first time.

Broadcaster and author Melvyn Bragg, whose first TV documentary for BBC Monitor in 1963,’Two Border Artists’ (the other was Sheila Fell), focused on the work of Norman, said in his Foreword to Behind The Scenes: The Norman Cornish Sketchbooks, “he stands as a magnificent Chronicler of one of the most important passages in English history.

“The paintings and drawing he brings to us of the hard-lived lives of a community which defied the odds will be enduring. He has not only preserved a life lived by millions of people in this country and others around the world, he has given it significance and permanence that only a real artist can achieve.”

Dr Howard Coutts, from The Bowes Museum, said: “We are truly honoured to be holding this first major retrospective of works by Norman Cornish. His chronicles of life in a bygone era are captivating and draw you into the scene that he’s portraying.”

As part of a year-round celebration of the centenary of Norman Cornish’s birth, two further exhibitions dedicated to aspects of Norman Cornish’s work open in the autumn.

The Greenfield Gallery, in Newton Aycliffe, hosts Man of Destiny from October 10 to December 11 and Durham University’s Palace Green Library will hosts The Norman Cornish Sketchbooks from November 16 to February 23.

More more information on the artist and the Norman Cornish Centenary events visit normancornish.com /centenary

The Norman Cornish Centenary Exhibition programme is supported by Arts Council England National Lottery Fund.