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.
Cornish was born in 1919 at the Spennymoor Settlement in County Durham in North East England. He started work as a miner in 1933, at the age of 14 and continued to work as a miner even after his painting career was established, until he retired as a miner and became a full-time artist in 1966.
Cornish joined the “Pitman’s Academy” art school at the age of 15, becoming known as a “pit painter”, and was the last surviving member of the Spennymoor institute.
To mark the 100th anniversary of Cornish’s birth, the Bowes Museum 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’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. In addition to this a room within the art gallery at Spennymoor Town Hall has been dedicated to exhibiting paintings by Cornish.
Cornish, Norman (1919 - 2014)
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.
Cornish was born in 1919 at the Spennymoor Settlement in County Durham in North East England. He started work as a miner in 1933, at the age of 14 and continued to work as a miner even after his painting career was established, until he retired as a miner and became a full-time artist in 1966.
Cornish joined the “Pitman’s Academy” art school at the age of 15, becoming known as a “pit painter”, and was the last surviving member of the Spennymoor institute.
To mark the 100th anniversary of Cornish’s birth, the Bowes Museum 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’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. In addition to this a room within the art gallery at Spennymoor Town Hall has been dedicated to exhibiting paintings by Cornish.
