The Bowes Museum’s major summer show unveils newly-discovered Norman Cornish artwork

A mix of 35 previously-unseen or rarely-shown artworks by Norman Cornish and LS Lowry will go on show in County Durham this weekend and visitors are in for a treat.

Among the display at The Bowes Museum, featuring a total of 50 paintings and sketches by the two late greats , will be a newly-discovered self-portrait by Cornish, described as a ‘magical’ discovery, which shows the former miner-turned artist from Spennymoor as a young man. The painting – a highlight of the Kith and Kinship: Norman Cornish and LS Lowry exhibition which opens on Saturday – was revealed during conservation work at the museum.

It was uncovered during work being carried out on a painting called Bar Scene, which was on loan to the museum by Durham County Council, and the self-portrait was found on the reverse of a backing board used for stability. It now makes for an exciting addition to the major new exhibition of work by artists described by the museum as ‘extraordinary storytellers of everyday life, who showcase the north through different lenses’.

Pub interiors, as featured in Bar Scene, were a popular subject for Cornish who documented the life he had known and scenes he witnessed during his former 33 years as a miner. His famous paintings capture pitmen at work; homeward bound through lamp-lit lanes or huddled over a beer, playing dominoes, in the coppery glow of a pub.

In an interview with the Chronicle, he once told how he felt “like two people”, being both part of the world he painted and an observer of it, saying: “There’s me and there’s another me who floats about and watches. That happens quite often. I’m there and I’m not there: I’m somewhere else as well. When I’d go to the pub, I could be having a full conversation with someone but also full concentration on somebody playing dominos.”

The self-portrait shows Cornish in his younger days – with the black hair he kept into his old age – but it is not yet known where the painting fits in the chronology of his artworks. It becomes the 29th known self-portrait and will be displayed alongside some of the others. The Bowes Museum’s conservator Jon Old has described its discovery as ‘magical’.

He said that when he started work on Bar Scene, he noticed a back board behind it which he removed to see if it was affecting the painting. “To my surprise it revealed this wonderful other painting on the reverse, which was quite magical,” he said, adding: “I felt very privileged to have been the first person since Norman Cornish to see this self-portrait and look forward to the reaction of our visitors when they see it too.”

John Cornish, son of the artist who died in 2014, was invited to a preview of the County Durham exhibition on Thursday morning where also among the work on display is his father’s painting Big Meeting 1947, which depicts the annual get-together of mining villages, plus sketches of family scenes.

Among the Lowry artworks is one of his most well-recognised too: The Procession 1927, showing a crowd scene set against the backdrop of smoke belching from Manchester mills. The Lancashire-born artist, famed for his ‘matchstick’ figures, was a regular visitor to the North East over his lifetime and spent a lot of time around Sunderland where examples of his oils and sketches now hang in the city museum.

In documenting industrial scenes in his own northern community, he too is said to have had the perspective of an outsider ‘looking in’. With a shared love of the north, the two artists had a history of exhibiting together and included in display is a pencil drawing of the Stone Gallery in Newcastle where they shared shows over a period of 15 years.

Vicky Sturrs, the museum’s director of programmes and collection, said: ‘Both Cornish and Lowry were extraordinary storytellers of their time, recording and depicting the lives of the people in their communities as well as the North East’s familiar landscapes in scenes that we can all relate to. Many of the works in this exhibition have an incredibly visceral feel – you can almost feel the warmth of the home, smell the chip van and hear the laughter.”

The exhibition aims to takes visitors on a journey from ‘meeting’ the artists to experiencing life as they saw it. Hannah Fox, the museum’s executive director, said: “Cornish and Lowry capture life and its nuances in a way that everyone can understand and connect with.” She hopes that their work will capture viewers’ imagination and inspire them, connecting and resonating not just with local people but with a wider audience too.

The joint collection features a range of their works from private ownership and galleries throughout the UK and the exhibition also includes writing and stories to help set the context. Kith and Kinship: Norman Cornish and LS Lowry opens at The Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle on July 20 and will run there until January 19, 2025, with a series of connected talks also being planned. For more information and tickets see here.