5th Oct, 2024 9:30 GMT/BST
Modern & Contemporary Art
518
Norman Stansfield Cornish MBE (1919-2014)
Street scene with horse and cart
Signed, mixed media, 20cm by 27.5cm
Born in 1919 in Oxford Street, Spennymoor, Norman Cornish began working in the mines in 1933. Not long after he was accepted as a member of the Spennymoor Settlement, at just age 15. It was here that he met the author Sid Chaplin and later fellow mining artist Tom McGuinness. The resident warden of the Settlement Bill Farrell encouraged Cornish to "paint the life he knew".
Cornish's paintings offer an insight into everyday life in his home town of Spennymoor and the mines, capturing scenes of places and an industry that no longer remain. The characters he painted are real people he knew and those who belonged to the mining heritage locally. There was a time when Sid Chaplin expressed concerns over Norman's unvarying subject matter stating, "I've often been irritated by his seeming lack of enterprise, his lack of interest in anything but Spennymoor". However, this unerring dedication to his subject reveals and provides an intimate rendition of the industrial and social history of the North East.
Sold for £3,500
Estimated at £2,000 - £3,000
Slight cockling to the paper throughout. Slight time staining/oxidisation to the exposed areas of the paper. Muted palette by design. Some light surface dirt and debris trapped under the glass. Small brown mark to the right of the lower edge of the mount. Not examined out of the frame.
The odd minor chip and knock to the frame.
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Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 5th Oct, 2024
A fine selection of Modern and Contemporary Art will be offered this October, with important works including "Torpedo Fish" by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, "Houses, Trees and Ships" by Alfred Wallis and two paintings by Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis.
Also included in the sale are works by Christopher Wood, Henry Moore, Mary Fedden, Dame Eileen Mayo, John Hoyland, Sandra Blow, Bryan Pearce, Roger Hilton, Breon O'Casey and Sir Terry Frost.
Viewing
Thursday 3rd October and Friday 4th October 10am-4pm and the morning of the sale from 8am
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