Joan Eardley, RSA

There is a small tear to the upper right corner and a square patch added in the lower right corner, probably original to the work. The sheet is undulating throughout. There is some staining caused by cellotape along the lower edge. Discolouration and spots of foxing are scattered throughout. Mounted in a simple gold frame. Under glass and unexamined out of frame.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Eardley rented a studio in the heart of Glasgow at 21 Cochrane Street, close to the City Chambers, and it was here that she was exposed to nitty-gritty daily life with all the recognisable characters that so dominated her work. Eardley had a particular affinity with children. Maybe because the matter-of-fact way that they viewed the world around them was similar to the way that Eardley approached her art. In the sketches of children from this period Eardley would use any old scraps of paper and medium she could find, including the blue distemper which she had used to decorate the studio walls. This gave her work the kind of honesty and truth that she saw in the faces of her sitters.

The current work, A Glasgow Boy, is a wonderful full length portrait of a boy, his scruffy shirt and shorts showing evidence of mischief and his knees, elbows and face bearing the signs of daily life on Glasgow's streets. His arms are folded and he stands confidently looking straight at the viewer indicating the possibility that this child was someone with whom Eardley was familiar and who felt comfortable being painted. In the early 60s Eardley recorded an interview in which she described her love of Glasgow and the events that took place on its streets: "I try still to paint Glasgow so long as there is this family group quality. I've known about half a dozen families well I suppose during the period of time I've worked in Glasgow...about ten years or more and at the present moment a family by the name of Samson. I have been painting them for seven years...there are a large number of them...they come up and say "will you paint me?"...they amuse me - they are full of what's gone on today - whose broken into what shop and whose flung a pie in whose face - it goes on and on. They just let out all their life and energy...they are Glasgow - this richness that Glasgow has - I hope it will always have - a living thing, intense quality - you can't ever know what you are going to do but as long as Glasgow has this I'll always want to paint."