Hidden Self-Portrait by Norman Cornish Discovered Behind Another Painting

A never-before-seen self-portrait by Norman Cornish, the celebrated 20th-century painter from northern England, has been discovered on the back of one of his framed works.

Cornish, known for his realistic and gritty depictions of working-class life, grew up in the coal mining community of Spennymoor, a town in Durham County. Jon Old, a conservator at the Bowes Museum, discovered the work while preparing for an upcoming exhibition.

According to the museum, Old was doing conservation work on a Cornish painting called Bar Scene when he noticed that the piece had a strange backboard set into its stretcher.

“I decided to remove the board to see if it was affecting the painting, and to my surprise it revealed this wonderful other painting on the reverse, which was quite magical,” says Old in a statement. “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.”

Bar Scene is a dark, hazy painting of men at a crowded pub. The palette is filled with muted gray, purple and amber hues, and the figures look downwards, their faces largely obscured.

The portrait on the back also has a gray and somber tone; Cornish’s face, however, is clear. He looks directly at the viewer. His hair is mussed, and he appears haggard. According to the museum, the painting depicts the artist in his younger years. It is his 29th known self-portrait, and it will hang near others at the exhibition.

The Durham Council acquired Bar Scene in 1961; nobody identified the self-portrait for more than 60 years, as Vicky Sturrs, the museum’s director of programs and collections, tells the Washington Post’s Niha Masih.

“We found something nobody knew about,” she adds. “It was an ‘oh my God’ moment.”

The Bowes Museum will showcase more than 50 paintings by Cornish and L.S. Lowry—another 20th-century English painter renowned for his depictions of the working class. The exhibition, titled “Kith and Kinship: Norman Cornish and L.S. Lowry,” will explore the relationship between the two artists’ work.

“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 northeast’s familiar landscapes in scenes that we can all relate to,” says Sturrs in the statement. “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.”

During the 1950s and 1960s, Cornish and Lowry exhibited together frequently. Cornish, having worked as a coal miner himself, painted with an insider’s perspective, whereas Lowry came from a middle-class background and approached his subjects as an observer. While Lowry is arguably the more famous artist of the two, the show aims to present them on equal footing.

“Norman’s work should be seen as important as Lowry’s and should be more widely recognized,” Hannah Fox, executive director of the Bowes, tells the Guardian’s Mark Brown.

Because Bar Scene and the new self-portrait are on the same canvas, gallery staffers will have to rotate the painting throughout the exhibition, per the Guardian. Both sides will be visible—but because Cornish did not orient them the same way, one image will always be upside down.

“Kith and Kinship: Norman Cornish and L.S. Lowry” is on view at the Bowes Museum in northern England through January 19, 2025.

Julia Binswanger | READ MORE

Julia Binswanger is a freelance arts and culture reporter based in Chicago. Her work has been featured in WBEZ, Chicago magazine, Rebellious magazine and PC magazine.