2nd Mar, 2019 10:30 GMT/BST
Norman Stansfield Cornish (1919-2014)
"Solitary Miner"
Signed, watercolour heightened with white, 14cm by 22cm
Provenance: The Stone Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Artist's Resale Rights/Droit de Suite may apply to this lot, please refer to our Terms of Business
See illustration
Born in 1919 in Oxford Street, Spennymoor, Norman Cornish began working in the mines on Boxing day in 1933 and not long after he was accepted as a member of the Spennymoor Settlement, at just the age of 15. It was here that he met the author Sid Chaplin and fellow mining artist Tom McGuinness.
The artists of the Settlement exhibited regularly at the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle and directly after the war Cornish held his first solo exhibition at the People's Theatre in Newcastle. The sale of five of his works at the exhibition resulted in him being asked to curate an exhibition on Oxford Street in London "Art by the Miner". The exhibition was organised to create awareness of the newly nationalised coalmines and resulted in Cornish being interviewed on television, it transpired that he was a natural speaker and he continued to converse with the media throughout his career.
Cornish exhibited throughout the North East and nationally and in 1959 he first exhibited at the acclaimed Stone Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne. The gallery prided itself on representing artists with local connections such as Sheila Fell and L.S Lowry in addition to many of the internationally acclaimed historical and old master artists. Cornish established a long standing relationship with the gallery which lasted for over twenty years.
Sold for £2,100
Estimated at £1,200 - £1,800
Auction: Modern & Contemporary Art, 2nd Mar, 2019
Modern & Contemporary Art
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