Norman Cornish (1919-2014)

Norman Cornish was born in Spennymoor, an old mining town in County Durham. Cornish himself started work as a miner in 1933, at the age of 14, and he would continue to work in the mines for 33 years, retiring from the back-breaking work to become a full-time artist in 1966.

As with L.S. Lowry from the industrial heartlands of Manchester, and Sheila Fell from the Cumbrian pit village of Aspatria, Cornish was formed by his environment. Indeed, Cornish’s characters are all drawn from life, not posed, and it is through his warmth of feeling for the community of which he was part that he observes the human condition and rich experience of life through compassionate eyes. The mellow, earthy tones which Cornish employs in Eddy’s Fish and Chip shop, and The Newcastle Bar contrast starkly with our preconception of the cold, unforgiving clamour of the collier’s lot.