Number 10 Museum in Residence: Laing Art Gallery

Every year, the Government Art Collection showcases the collection of a museum or gallery located outside London within 10 Downing Street. This year’s display comes from the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Rishi Sunak and his wife are walking past the works of art from the Laing

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty walking past the works of art from the Laing. Picture by Simon Walker / No 10 Downing Street.

For 2023–24’s Museum in Residence, curators at the Government Art Collection worked with the Laing Art Gallery to select a number of pieces from its collection for display within 10 Downing Street.

The Laing Art Gallery is located in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne and was founded in 1901 by local businessman and philanthropist Alexander Laing. Unusually, Laing commissioned the baroque-style building with its striking art nouveau elements but left no art collection to adorn its walls. Once open to the public however, donations of art soon followed and the gallery gradually amassed one of the region’s most diverse collections. Today, the Laing Art Gallery holds an internationally important collection of British oil paintings, watercolours, ceramics, silver and glassware and hosts regular exhibitions of historic and contemporary art.

Works from the Laing Art Gallery being hung in 10 Downing Street

This year’s display in 10 Downing Street reflects the rich array of artworks within the Laing Art Gallery’s collection. While half of those chosen capture Newcastle’s distinctive cityscape and point to the city’s industrial past, the other half represent the diverse art scene of northeast England and speak to the important role that the region’s art schools played in shaping art teaching throughout the UK. Each artwork in the display is by an artist based in the northeast or who responded to the region’s landmarks and landscapes through their art. Over the coming year, the work of these artists will be encountered by fresh audiences, including No 10 staff and the many visitors who pass through the house throughout the year.

A massive steel bridge being built against a blue sky

Edward Montgomery Dickey O’Rourke, The Building of the Tyne Bridge, 1928 © copyright reserved

Located at the centre of this display is a large oil painting by Edward Dickey depicting the construction of the Tyne Bridge. The bridge, which links Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, was opened in 1928 and remains an iconic landmark today. The bridge is shown here mid assembly – with the two sides of its distinctive parabolic arch coming together and a crane swinging overhead. Nearby in the display is a work by the Oxfordshire-born Byron Dawson, who settled in Newcastle following the completion of his engineering apprenticeship in the city. Dawson’s painting, Caravans, Figures & Helter Skelter (1930), reproduces a scene from The Hoppings, a long-running travelling fair that has set up annually on the Town Moor at the centre of Newcastle since 1882 and, to this day, plays host to traditional caravans such as that pictured here.

Alongside city scenes and landscapes, this display includes several mid-20th century artworks by figures associated with the region’s progressive art schools. Victor Pasmore’s Girl with Mirror (c.1942–5) offers a rare example of a figurative work from a painter better known for his energetic abstract compositions. In the 1950s and 1960s, Pasmore, along with fellow art teacher Richard Hamilton, made Newcastle a centre for British art and, inspired by the philosophy of the Bauhaus school in Germany, developed a model for UK higher arts education that remains in use today.

Also on display is a work by King’s College (now Newcastle University) graduate Flora Glover, titled The Flood (c.1941). Glover’s painting translates the story of Noah’s Ark into modern form through its muted palette and cubist sensibilities. These artworks are joined by two others that both experiment with materials and composition. The first, Quartz Inset (c. 1965), by another King’s College graduate, Florence Ward, uses plaster to echo the cut quartz of rural landscapes. The other, West Front, Durham (1974), by Kenneth Rowntree, a former Professor of Fine Art at Newcastle University, repurposes a wooden tea chest to recreate the western facade of Durham’s mighty cathedral.

Four roughly-cut stones in amber and deep red colours lay in line.

We have enjoyed working with the Government Art Collection team in selecting paintings from the Laing Art Gallery. It has enabled us to see the works from a fresh perspective – to hone and highlight narratives about the North East. We are delighted that our wonderful pictures will be seen by a range of people, from the UK and around the world, as they pass through the doors of No 10.

— Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries, Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

The Laing Art Gallery is managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums on behalf of Newcastle City Council.

See all the works on display at 10 Downing Street

Edward Montgomery Dickey O'Rourke, The Building of the Tyne Bridge, 1928 © copyright reserved.

This dramatic painting depicts the final stages of construction on Newcastle’s most recognisable landmark, the Tyne Bridge. The bridge, which links Newcastle upon Tyne and Gateshead, was opened in 1928 and remains an iconic landmark today. It is shown here mid assembly – with the two sides of its distinctive parabolic arch coming together and a crane swinging overhead.
Norman Cornish, Pit Road, 1960 © the artist's estate.

This painting, by coal-miner turned art teacher Norman Cornish, captures a scene of a miner returning from work through a dramatic colour palette and vigorous, bold paint strokes. In its background details it gestures to the source of Newcastle’s wealth in coal, a heap of which is visible beyond the fence.
Louis Grimshaw, St Nicholas Street (1902)

This painting shows the brightly-lit shops of Newcastle’s St Nicholas Street, with the spire of the Gothic Church of St Nicholas visible at its centre. The artist, Louis Grimshaw, mainly painted in London but appears to have made a short visit to Newcastle in 1902. Grimshaw was one of a family of artists who specialised in painting the streets and docklands of England’s northern cities, following in the footsteps of their father, John Atkinson Grimshaw. Following his career as a painter, Grimshaw abandoned painting in 1905 to become a cartographer.
Arthur Grimshaw, The Quayside (1895)

In this painting a man pushes a cart across tramlines on the Newcastle Quayside. Yellow light shines out from the shops, while the silvery light of the moon is reflected on the wet cobbles. The artist, Arthur Grimshaw, was one of a family of artists based in Leeds who specialised in painting the streets and docklands of England’s northern cities. He was also a successful composer, organist and conductor.
Byron Dawson, Caravans, Figures & Helter Skelter (1930) © copyright reserved.

This intriguing painting depicts a scene from The Hoppings, a long-running travelling fair that has been set up annually on the Town Moor at the centre of Newcastle since 1882 and, to this day, plays host to the type of traditional caravan included by the artist.
Victor Pasmore, Girl with Mirror (c.1942–5) © estate of Victor Pasmore. All rights reserved, DACS 2024.

This painting is a rare example of a figurative work from a painter better known for his energetic abstract compositions. Its subject, Wendy Pasmore, a painter and the wife of the artist, is captured in diagonal lines and given lightness through a careful use of colour. During the 1950s and 1960s, Pasmore, along with fellow art teacher Richard Hamilton, made Newcastle a centre for British Art and, via Bauhaus philosophy, developed a model for UK higher arts education that remains in use today.
Flora Glover, The Flood (c.1941)

In this compelling painting, Glover translates the biblical story of Noah’s Ark into 20th-century form through the use of a mid-century palette and cubist sensibilities. Glover was a graduate of King’s College (now Newcastle University) and a highly skilled artist, creating work up until her untimely death in 1946.
Florence Ward, Quartz Inset (c.1965) © the artist's estate.

Born at Dunston, near Gateshead, Ward studied at King’s College (now Newcastle University) and exhibited widely in northeast England in later years. Ward was fascinated by local rural landscapes and sought to recreate them in her work. Here she uses plaster to echo the texture of cut quartz.
Kenneth Rowntree, West Front, Durham (1974) © copyright reserved.

This piece, possibly constructed from a tea chest, uses collage to depict the Western facade of Durham’s mighty cathedral. Rowntree, who was Professor of Fine Art at Newcastle University between 1959 to 1980, uses the overlapping surfaces of wood to create depth and to mimic the play of light on the Cathedral’s outer walls.