ONE of the largest groups of French Impressionist paintings to come to the North-East will feature as part of an exhibition next month.

The Bowes Museum, in Barnard Castle, County Durham, has secured works from artists such as Renoir, Monet, Pissarro and Sisley to feature in the exhibition, Road to Impressionism.

The museum has become famous for its collection of 19th Century landscape paintings, thanks to co-founder Josephine Bowes's love of art.

Mrs Bowes, who died in 1874, collected more than a hundred contemporary French paintings by artists such as Courbet, Fantin-Latour and Boudin during the last century, and many are still at the museum.

The paintings featuring in the exhibition, which opens on November 2, have been borrowed from the National Gallery, in London, the National Gallery of Scotland, in Edinburgh, and the National Museums and Galleries, on Merseyside.

Adrian Jenkins, museum director, said: "I am delighted that the Bowes Museum is able to host this major exhibition of French 19th 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 will run until March 30, and staff are expecting it to be very popular with visitors.

The exhibition's 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."