ONE of the largest groups of French Impressionist paintings to come to the North-East will feature as part of an exhibition which opens at the Bowes Museum next weekend.

In addition to pictures from its own collection, the museum, in Barnard Castle, has secured loans of works by artists such as Renoir, Monet, Pissarro and Sisley for the exhibition Road to Impressionism.

Josephine Bowes, co-founder of the museum with her husband John, was herself a landscape painter and an avid collector.

By the time of her death in 1874, she had amassed more than 100 paintings by French artists such as Courbet, Fantin-Latour and Boudin which now form part of the cream of the museum art collection.

Works on loan for the new exhibition come from both the English and Scottish national galleries, and the Merseyside National Museums and Galleries collection.

Adrian Jenkins, director of the Bowes, said: "I am delighted that the Bowes Museum is able to host this major exhibition of French nineteenth century paintings.

"It shows once again that the Bowes Museum can initiate exhibitions of national importance for the enjoyment of the people of the North-East and beyond."

The exhibition opens on November 2 and will run until March 30 next year, and staff at the museum are expecting it to be very popular with visitors.

The exhibition curator, Dr Howard Coutts, said: "The exhibition will demonstrate to all our visitors that the Bowes Museum is of international significance, especially to those who are interested in the history of fine and decorative art."

The exhibition continues the Bowes' policy of putting together occasional large-scale exhibitions linking aspects of its own collection with major works borrowed from leading galleries and museums in other parts of the country.

Visitor numbers show that people will turn out in their droves to see works on their doorstep by the "big names" of art history.