Intimate exhibition revealing Norman Cornish’s drawings, paintings and sketchbooks depicting Durham coalfield life.
Step inside the working imagination of Norman Cornish in this intimate exhibition, bringing together finished drawings, paintings and watercolours alongside the preparatory sketches that shaped them. Across a lifetime, Cornish filled 269 sketchbooks, capturing the streets, people, and communities of the Durham coalfield with remarkable insight and warmth. His belief that sketchbooks should “have a life of their own… to teach people to look at things” comes alive in this display, which also features a recent acquisition, strengthening The Bowes Museum’s collection of one of the North’s celebrated twentieth-century artists.

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Visitor information
Address
Newgate, Barnard Castle, County Durham, DL12 8NP
01833 690606
Opening times
Mon – Sun, 10am – 5pm Closed 25, 26 Dec and 1 Jan


















