The current Exhibition of Paintings by Jane Noone (1934 – 1959) at Darlington Library Art Gallery is on display until Thursday 5 February 2026 and free to explore during standard Darlington Library opening times (Monday to Friday from 9am – 5pm, Saturdays 9am – 3pm, closed Sundays).
Exuberant, fun loving and enthusiastic, Jane Noone died tragically young during her last term as a student of the Royal College of Art, London, in 1959. Darlington born Jane, was just twenty five years old when she died, having gone to Chelsea School of Art in 1953 and the Royal College of Art in 1957.
This is the first public exhibition of Jane’s work in Darlington in 60 years, and shares twenty of her exuberant paintings which have drawn positive comments from many visitors to date, including those shown below:
- Absolutely fabulous, thank you for exhibition, which I loved.
- What a fine painter – so tragic that the talent was lost so young.
- Larger than life. Bold strokes. Lovely pictures. Love the spiral staircase. Typical of the era.
- Excellent exhibition. Really great paintings by an artist who needs to be better known – especially locally. We can learn a lot from the craftsmanship and focus in these works!! A tragedy she died so young with so much to give.
- Lovely paintings. Very talented artist.
- Fascinating! Certainly worth a visit.
- Gave me lots of pleasure seeing them.
- Gorgeous paintings. First time I’ve heard of her.
- Beautiful paintings and bittersweet to learn about the young artist.
- Powerful paintings! Great display.
- Really rather good!
Major retrospective exhibitions of her work were mounted in Darlington in 1960 and again in 1965 with reviews in The Guardian, Northern Echo and Northern Despatch. We hope you’ll get the chance to see Jane’s work, and will share your comments if you visit Darlington Library Art Gallery before the exhibition ends. If you enjoy painting, its great to see the colours and painters technique up close, and the exhibition offers insight into Jane’s practice, and contains both finished works and works in progress.
