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Joan Eardley Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, b. 1921 - d. 1963

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    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) GIRL IN STRIPED JERSEY Inscribed with inventory number ‘ED877’, pastel 25.5cm x 20cm (10in x 8in) Roland Browse & Delbanco, London Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £7,000 - £10,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STACKS AND SETTING SUN Oil on board  32cm x 38cm (12.5in x 15in) Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Festival Exhibition, 1958, no.20 Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £8,000 - £12,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. R.S.W. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE STRIPED SKIRT Pastel on glass paper 28cm x 23cm (11in x 9in)  St. Andrews Fine Art, July 1998. Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Festival Exhibition, 1964, no. 79.Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £7,000 - £10,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BOYS PLAYING CARDS Oil on board 23cm x 23cm (9in x 9in) The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley - Paintings and Drawings, 1996, no.13 Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN KATHLEEN HARDING EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921–1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN KATHLEEN HARDING EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921–1963)

      Est: £2,000 - £4,000

      JOAN KATHLEEN HARDING EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921–1963) THE WINDMILL Pen and wash 30cm x 33cm (12in x 13in) Exhibited:The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley Paintings, Watercolours, Pastels and Drawings, June 1988, no.39

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) SALMON FISHING NETS - STUDY Pastel on three conjoined sheets 17.5cm x 46cm (7in x 18in) Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley - The Artist's Studio, 1958, no.2 This work dates from c.1958.Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £3,000 - £5,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FISHING BOATS Pastel on brown paper 14cm x 14cm (5.5in x 5.5in) The Artist's studioExhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley R.S.A. - Paintings and Drawings, 2007 Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) LITTLE GIRL Signed, pastel 30.5cm x 18cm (12in x 7in) The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, no.9871 Dated 1956 on gallery label verso.Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Dec. 05, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BOY IN BLUE JERSEY Oil on board 36.5cm x 16cm (14.25in x 6.25in) Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Christmas Exhibition, 1967, no.50 Joan Eardley’s exceptional skills of observation, technique and affinity with both people and nature is clear in the selection of paintings and works on paper presented here. They reveal how she worked sensitively and spontaneously from the city to the countryside and include examples of her celebrated portrayals of the Townhead district of Glasgow and of the fishing village of Catterline on Scotland’s north-east coast.Eardley maintained a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead from 1952 until her premature death in 1963. She became a regular sight in its somewhat rundown streets, sketching buildings, people and scenes of daily life in chalk and pastel, which she then worked up into paintings in the studio. She was drawn to the neighbourhood’s vibrancy and close-knit community and soon established a rapport with the local children, some of whom she would pay a modest fee for sitting for her. Quickly executed pastels, such as Little Girl, Girl in Striped Jersey and The Striped Skirt illustrate Eardley’s unsentimental approach to her young subjects. They are caught in unselfconscious poses and with natural facial expressions, with particular emphasis paid to the colour and pattern of their clothing. Eardley’s mixed use of pastel, from confident outline to curling gesture and smudged fields of contrasting tones, gives a sense of the energy and moment of the creative process which celebrates but does not sugarcoat childhood.In paintings including Boy in Blue Jersey and Boys Playing Cards a deeper, more contemplative atmosphere is suggested. In the former, the young model is portrayed in a moment of thought, hands clasped together and head tilted to look at something beyond the viewer’s sight. In Boys Playing Cards an air of concentration is focussed on the boy seen in profile, perhaps as he plans his next move, rather than presenting the whole game and all its participants. In 1952, Eardley visited Catterline for the first time. It became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching ‘on the spot’ in all seasons and weathers. She bought a cottage there in 1955 and thereafter divided her time between the village and Glasgow. Eardley immersed herself into the community and its way of life. The activities of its working harbour provided rich subject matter, as seen in Salmon Fishing Nets – Study. As Patrick Elliott has explained: ‘…the salmon-fishing season on Scotland’s east coast lasted from 16 February until 31 August…in order to conserve stocks, the fishermen were required by law to remove the long nets by noon on the Saturday and were not permitted to replace them before 6am on the following Monday. The long nets were cleaned and dried on the stony beach on the Saturday afternoon….the nets were hung up on the Makin Green, a rough grassy patch near the salmon bothy, on giant larch poles five or six metres tall.’ (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.107 & 111). Executed in pastel, Eardley joined three sheets of support in order to complete the current composition.In Stacks and Setting Sun I Eardley turned her eye to the surrounding fields to capture the fruition of the farming year as the day drew to a close. This time executed in oil on board, her expressive technique verges on abstraction, albeit anchored with figurative elements such as the fencing at the lower left. Eardley’s powerful response to the quickly changing scene before her is clear in the energetic brushstrokes and depiction of the fading, warm tones of sunlight.Whether working in the city or in the countryside, Eardley position as one of Britain’s leading twentieth-century artists is assured. 

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • A Glasgow Tenement
      Nov. 15, 2024

      A Glasgow Tenement

      Est: £18,000 - £25,000

      Joan Eardley R.S.A. 1921 – 1963 A Glasgow Tenement oil on board unframed: 38 by 28cm.; 15 by 11¼in. framed: 49.5 by 39cm.; 19½ by 15½in.

      Sotheby's
    • § Joan Eardley (1921-1963)
      Oct. 25, 2024

      § Joan Eardley (1921-1963)

      Est: £7,000 - £10,000

      § Joan Eardley (1921-1963) Gondolas, Venice oil on canvas 18.5 x 34cm Provenance: The Artist's Studio With T & R Annan & Sons, Ltd., Glasgow Sale; Sotheby's, 14 February, 1995, lot 365

      Cheffins
    • JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Breaking Wave. oil on board 34 ¾ x 48 in.
      Oct. 17, 2024

      JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Breaking Wave. oil on board 34 ¾ x 48 in.

      Est: £25,000 - £35,000

      JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Breaking Wave. oil on board 34 ¾ x 48 in. (88.3 x 122 cm.).

      Christie's
    • JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Little Girl and Comic. pastel and charcoa
      Oct. 17, 2024

      JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Little Girl and Comic. pastel and charcoa

      Est: £10,000 - £15,000

      JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Little Girl and Comic. pastel and charcoal on coloured paper 6 7⁄8 x 6 5⁄8 in. (17.4 x 16.7 cm.).

      Christie's
    • JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Wee Boy with a Green Cardigan. pastel and
      Oct. 17, 2024

      JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Wee Boy with a Green Cardigan. pastel and

      Est: £12,000 - £18,000

      JOAN EARDLEY, R.S.A. (1921-1963). Wee Boy with a Green Cardigan. pastel and charcoal on buff paper 11 3⁄8 x 8 7⁄8 in. (28.9 x 22.6 cm.).

      Christie's
    • Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Sea, Catterline
      Oct. 09, 2024

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Sea, Catterline

      Est: £6,000 - £8,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Sea, Catterline oil on board 24 x 29cm (9 7/16 x 11 7/16in).

      Bonhams
    • Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Landscape with cattle
      Oct. 09, 2024

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Landscape with cattle

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Landscape with cattle signed 'Eardley' (lower left) pen, ink and pastel 8 x 23cm (3 1/8 x 9 1/16in).

      Bonhams
    • Street Scene
      Jun. 07, 2024

      Street Scene

      Est: £5,000 - £7,000

      Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley, R.S.A. 1921 - 1963 Street Scene signed EARDLEY (lower centre) charcoal and pastel on paper unframed: 16 by 20.5cm.; 6¼ by 8in. framed: 30.5 by 33.5cm.; 12 by 13¼in.

      Sotheby's
    • Beggars in Venice
      Jun. 06, 2024

      Beggars in Venice

      Est: £150,000 - £250,000

      Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley, R.S.A. 1921 - 1963 Beggars in Venice titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas, laid on board unframed: 89 by 95cm.; 35 by 37¼in. framed: 97 by 103cm.; 36 by 40½in.

      Sotheby's
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Jun. 06, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) CATTERLINE Oil on board 28cm x 52cm (11in x 20.5in) The Artist's Estate, no.EO 307;The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh (2160) Catterline is believed to depict South Row in the titular fishing village on the north-east coast of Scotland that inspired many of Joan Eardley’s most celebrated works. Eardley first visited Catterline in 1951 and made frequent painting trips there between 1952 and 1954, before renting the small cottage at No. 1 South Row. She thereafter divided her time between Catterline and Glasgow, eventually using No.1 as a store and buying No. 18 in 1959.The modest dwellings, ten in all, make up the longest of the three ‘rows’ in the village, all built in the 18th century on a slope and facing north-east over the bay. With the others, ‘they form a little necklace of cottages which fringe the top of a steep cliff’ and several remained without water or electricity until the 1980s. (Patrick Elliott, Joan Eardley: Land & Sea – A Life in Catterline, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2021, pp.14 & 26)Catterline reveals the deep connection Eardley developed with the village, its natural environment, the impact of the cycle of the seasons there and its often-heightened weather conditions. With a technique as varied and expressive as the scene before her and the sensations experienced whilst painting it, the little houses hold their place amidst the physicality of the earth in the foreground and the drama played out across the sky above their rooves. In 1961, Eardley declared:“When I’m painting in the north-east I hardly ever move out of the village…I find that the more I know of the place, or of one particular spot, the more I find to paint…I don’t think I’m painting what I feel about scenery, certainly not scenery with a name; because that is the north east, just vast wastes, vast seas, vast areas of cliff…well – you’ve just got to paint it.‘ (quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Glastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, Edinburgh, 2016, p.11)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Jun. 06, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FIGURES IN AN ORCHARD Signed, mixed media 49cm x 72cm (19.25in x 28.25in) Acquired by the Great-Aunt of the present owner

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Jun. 06, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £5,000 - £7,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE PRAM Signed, pastel on conjoined sheets 11.5cm x 17.5cm (4.5in x 7in) The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, cat.no. 315

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Jun. 06, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) GIRL IN WHITE SINGLET Pastel 21.5cm x 16.5cm (8.5in x 6.5in) Cyril Gerber Fine Art, GlasgowBrowse & Darby, London (S5276)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)
      Jun. 06, 2024

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963)

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE PATTERNED SKIRT Pastel on sandpaper 28cm x 21.5cm (11in x 8.5in) Eardley’s instinctive rapport with the children of the Townhead district of Glasgow, whether observed in the streets or portrayed in her studio, is clear in the affectionate yet unsentimental paintings and works on paper in which they feature.As her friend and biographer Cordelia Oliver explained: “Above all, her subject was the working-class Glasgow child whom she made live as no one before her. The artist herself, gentle by nature and indeed, almost too modest (although her work always shows the ruthlessness of utter integrity) was taken for granted by the shy, dour, giggling, hopping, skipping, baby-minding and comic-reading raggle-taggle hordes she constantly drew – and gave ‘pieces’ to. It was this that made her able to light the spark that always flies between painter and sitter in the making of a fine portrait.” (Cordelia Oliver, ‘Joan Eardley RSA’, Joan Eardley RAS (1921-1963): A Memorial Exhibition, Scottish Committee of the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1964, exh.cat., p.2)Not least due to her young subjects’ energy, Eardley worked at speed, often using pastel to introduce areas of rich colour and sometimes, as in The Patterned Skirt, on sandpaper, whose abrasiveness adds a tactility and sense of material realism. The girl’s thoughtful gaze at first the artist and now the viewer is compounded by the neat holding of her hands in her lap. A varied, gestural use of pastel captures the vivid patterning and palette of the titular garment, conveying a sense of the immediacy of and moment of execution. Eardley herself stated:“The character of Glasgow lies in its back streets which are for me pictorially exciting…The back streets mean almost entirely…playing children – all over the streets…They usually come up and say ‘Will you paint me?’ In fact I am always having knocks on the door and this question. Some of them I don’t feel particularly interested in and so I just send them away, but the ones that I want to paint, I try to get to sit still…and do the best I can.” (quoted by Oliver, op.cit., p.9)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Children Playing and Boarded-up Shop
      May. 15, 2024

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Children Playing and Boarded-up Shop

      Est: £20,000 - £30,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Children Playing and Boarded-up Shop oil on board 24.5 x 50cm (9 5/8 x 19 11/16in).

      Bonhams
    • Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Sun on the Sea
      May. 15, 2024

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Sun on the Sea

      Est: £40,000 - £60,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Sun on the Sea oil on board 64.5 x 122cm (25 3/8 x 48 1/16in).

      Bonhams
    • Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley
      Dec. 12, 2023

      Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley

      Est: $6,000 - $8,000

      British, 1921-1963 Girl in Striped Jersey Inscribed with Artist's Estate Inventory Number ED877 (lr) Pastel on paper 10 x 8 inches (25.4 x 20.2 cm) Provenance: Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London (Frame dimensions:) Partially taped to board from the top and bottom on the verso; small tear in the upper left corner and upper right edge; some wear to the corners; paper mildly undulating.

      DOYLE Auctioneers & Appraisers
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) OLIVE GROVE AND PLOUGH
      Dec. 07, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) OLIVE GROVE AND PLOUGH

      Est: £3,000 - £5,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) OLIVE GROVE AND PLOUGH Pastel on brown paper (53cm x 65cm (20.75in x 25.5in)) Provenance: Dorothy Steel, a ballet dancer and friend of the artist, from whom acquired by the present owner

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BREAKING WAVES, SUNRISE
      Dec. 07, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BREAKING WAVES, SUNRISE

      Est: £8,000 - £12,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BREAKING WAVES, SUNRISE Oil on board (28cm x 46cm (11in x 18in)) Provenance: Joyce Laing OBE, a friend of the artist, from whom purchased by the present owner

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STORM AT SEA
      Dec. 07, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STORM AT SEA

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STORM AT SEA Oil on board (24cm x 28.5cm (9.5in x 11.25in)) Provenance: Joyce Laing OBE, a friend of the artist, from whom purchased by the present owner

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) LANDSCAPE WITH TREES
      Dec. 07, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) LANDSCAPE WITH TREES

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) LANDSCAPE WITH TREES Signed, pastel (20cm x 25cm (8in x 9.75in)) Provenance: The Artist’s Estate Acquired from the above by Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow from where acquired by the present owner in 2003 This work is one of a series of studies relating the paintings The Little Larchwood (I) and (II), both of c.1955 (see Chrisopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Lund Humphries, Farnham, 2013, p.145). It is likely to have been executed in situ whilst Eardley was visiting her friend, the photographer Audrye Walker, as Christopher Andreae has explained: ‘The ‘little larchwood’ paintings were done during one of Joan’s visits to Caverslee, the shepherd’s cottage in the Borders used as a country retreat by the Walker family.’ (op.cit.)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) PORTRAIT OF JIMMIE
      Dec. 07, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) PORTRAIT OF JIMMIE

      Est: £20,000 - £30,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) PORTRAIT OF JIMMIE Signed, numbered on the backboard with the inventory number EE39, oil on board (29cm x 22.5cm (11.5in x 9in)) Provenance: Barclay Lennie Fine Art Ltd, Glasgow (DCXVII) by 1990, where purchased by the original owner A gift to the present owner Exhibited: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley, 6 November 2007 - 13 January 2008, pl.47 (as 'Head of a Boy')

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • The Street Car
      Nov. 22, 2023

      The Street Car

      Est: £5,000 - £8,000

      Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley, R.S.A. 1921 - 1963 The Street Car inscribed with the Artist's Estate Inventory Number ED532 (lower left) charcoal and pastel on paper unframed (sheet): 16.5 by 17.5cm.; 6½ by 7in. framed: 34.5 by 35cm.; 13½ by 13¾in.

      Sotheby's
    • Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963) Georgie
      Oct. 11, 2023

      Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963) Georgie

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963) Georgie signed 'JEardley' (lower left), signed 'Joan Eardley' (verso) pastel and charcoal on glass paper 28 x 23cm (11 x 9 1/16in).

      Bonhams
    • Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Tenement
      Oct. 11, 2023

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Tenement

      Est: £40,000 - £60,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Tenement oil on canvas 75 x 67.5cm (29 1/2 x 26 9/16in).

      Bonhams
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FIR TREES PERTHSHIRE
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FIR TREES PERTHSHIRE

      Est: £7,000 - £10,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FIR TREES PERTHSHIRE Ink, watercolour and gouache (54cm x 71cm (21.25in x 28in)) Provenance: Acquired from The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh in 2014 by the present owner Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley, January-February 1984, no. 7 The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Modern Masters 11, January-February 2014, no.13

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STUDIES OF AMANDA
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STUDIES OF AMANDA

      Est: £6,000 - £8,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) STUDIES OF AMANDA Pastel on coloured paper (25.5cm x 20.5cm (10in x 8in)) Exhibited: Mercury Gallery Ltd, Edinburgh Note: The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) PORTRAIT STUDY
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) PORTRAIT STUDY

      Est: £3,000 - £5,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) PORTRAIT STUDY Pastel on coloured paper (16cm x 18.5cm (6.25in x 7.25in)) Note: The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BOY WITH BLUE TROUSERS
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BOY WITH BLUE TROUSERS

      Est: £10,000 - £15,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) BOY WITH BLUE TROUSERS Pastel (45cm x 33cm (17.75in x 13in)) Provenance: William 'Bill' Macaulay and thence by descent Private Collection, U.S.A Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Joan Eardley in Context, 6 August-5 September 2015, no.16 Note: This is a portrait of Martin Macaulay and is one of several studies of the five children of William 'Bill' Macaulay, Senior Partner of The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, which Eardley executed in 1960. The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) HAYSTACK AND GATE
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) HAYSTACK AND GATE

      Est: £7,000 - £10,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) HAYSTACK AND GATE With the Artist's Estate Inventory Number EE239 verso, oil on board (19cm x 23cm (7.5in x 9in)) Exhibited: Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow, March 1985, no.15 Note: Eardley’s first visited Catterline in 1951 and the village became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching 'on the spot' in all seasons, weather conditions and times of day. As Patrick Elliott has explained Catterline was not a picturesque Highland village…but a working harbour with boats, fishing nets and fields of wheat, barley and oats. People may be absent from Eardley’s Catterline paintings, but their presence is felt.’ (Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, Edinburgh 2016, p.10) Eardley made frequent painting trips to Catterline between 1952 and 1954, before renting the small cottage at No. 1 South Row. She thereafter split her time between Glasgow and the village. Whilst keeping No.1 as a store, Eardley went on to purchase No. 18 South Row in 1959. Her relationship with the immediate area deepened and in 1961 Eardley declared: When I’m painting in the north-east I hardly ever move out of the village…I find that the more I know of the place, or of one particular spot, the more I find to paint…I don’t think I’m painting what I feel about scenery, certainly not scenery with a name; because that is the north-east, just vast wastes, vast seas, vast areas of cliff…well – you’ve just go to paint it.’ (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.11) As revealed in Haystack and Gate (Lot 171), Eardley was finely attuned to the turn of the seasons, the farming calendar and varying lighting conditions. She captured the ripening of the crops, their harvesting and the fecund forms of the resultant stacks. Here one is positioned at the centre of a composition based on thickly painted passages in which the higgledy-piggledy gate and fence are picked out in rich detail.

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) GINGER
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) GINGER

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) GINGER With the Artist's Estate Inventory Number EE30 verso, oil on board (43cm x 37cm (17in x 14.5in)) Provenance: Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London Note: The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) TWO CHILDREN
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) TWO CHILDREN

      Est: £20,000 - £30,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) TWO CHILDREN Pastel on brown paper (25.5cm x 20cm (10in x 8in)) Provenance: Acquired from the Artist’s Estate by the father of the present owner. Exhibited: Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley, 6 November 2007-13 January 2008 Note: The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW, THE ROW, CATTERLINE
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW, THE ROW, CATTERLINE

      Est: £15,000 - £20,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) FOOTSTEPS IN THE SNOW, THE ROW, CATTERLINE Signed, oil on canvas, with another painting of a 'Kitchen with Stove' verso (36cm x 53.5cm (14in x 21in)) Provenance: Given by the Artist to Mrs McLusky in 1963 Acquired from the above by McEwan Gallery, Ballater in 1980 Acquired from the above by Dr Mackenzie in 1980 and thence by family descent to the present owner Note: Eardley’s first visited Catterline in 1951 and the village became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching 'on the spot' in all seasons, weather conditions and times of day. As Patrick Elliott has explained Catterline was not a picturesque Highland village…but a working harbour with boats, fishing nets and fields of wheat, barley and oats. People may be absent from Eardley’s Catterline paintings, but their presence is felt.’ (Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, Edinburgh 2016, p.10) Eardley made frequent painting trips to Catterline between 1952 and 1954, before renting the small cottage at No. 1 South Row. She thereafter split her time between Glasgow and the village. Whilst keeping No.1 as a store, Eardley went on to purchase No. 18 South Row in 1959. Her relationship with the immediate area deepened and in 1961 Eardley declared: When I’m painting in the north-east I hardly ever move out of the village…I find that the more I know of the place, or of one particular spot, the more I find to paint…I don’t think I’m painting what I feel about scenery, certainly not scenery with a name; because that is the north-east, just vast wastes, vast seas, vast areas of cliff…well – you’ve just go to paint it.’ (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.11) Eardley gave Footsteps in the Snow, The Row, Catterline (Lot 168) to her mother’s housekeeper, Mrs McLusky in 1963. Mrs McLusky later explained that it had been made at daybreak after a fresh fall of snow. The footprints are those of the artist leaving No.1 South Row and finding the place from which to paint the scene. The cottage was the last in a row of ten and has been described thus: No.1 was…the most exposed and southerly cottage in the village, at the least favoured end of the least favoured row, half as desirable as a coal shed…while there were a few bits of furniture in it when Eardley moved it, it seems to have had no permanent recent resident. It suited Eardley perfectly. (Elliott and Galastro, ibid., p.39). The low vantage point means the cottage nestles above swathes of snow and beneath a sky in which dawn is advancing. Touches of colour bring out features such as the window frames and areas of weathering on the gable end. The interior painted on the work’s reverse provides a glimpse into its interior, showing the artist’s kettle set upon a gas stove. On receiving the painting, Mrs McLusky pointed out that it was unsigned, whereupon Eardley wrote her name in pencil at the lower right.

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE BLUE PINAFORE
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE BLUE PINAFORE

      Est: £3,000 - £5,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE BLUE PINAFORE Signed, pastel (14.5cm x 10cm (5.75in x 4in)) Provenance:Acquired in 1955 from The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh and thence by descent to the Executors of the Late Mrs Anne Walker Note: The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) CHILDREN PLAYING MARBLES
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) CHILDREN PLAYING MARBLES

      Est: £8,000 - £12,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) CHILDREN PLAYING MARBLES With the Artist's Estate Inventory Number ED958, watercolour (28cm x 28cm (11in x 11in)) Provenance: The Artist's Estate Private Collection, Scotland Duncan R. Miller Fine Arts, London Exhibited: The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, Joan Eardley, Paintings, Watercolours, Pastels and Drawings, 1988, no.11 Note: The Townhead district of Glasgow and the fishing village of Catterline, on the north-east coast of Scotland, provided the locations and communities which inspired much of Joan Eardley’s oeuvre, revealing her deep sense of place and people in works which have secured her a leading place in British art history. As Fiona Pearson has explained: Eardley was a strong, passionate painter who was totally engaged in depicting the life forces around her, everything from children to nature…Eardley’s deep love of humanity was manifest in images of the resilience of the human spirit among the poor, the old and the very young…[She reminds…] Scots of lost tenement communities and the wild natural beauty of the landscape. (Fiona Pearson, Joan Eardley, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2007, pp.8-9) In 1953 Eardley moved into a studio at 204 St James Road in Townhead, above a scrap-metal merchant’s premises. The area was of mixed residential and light industrial use, was rundown and overcrowded, yet she was drawn to its vibrancy, declaring: I like the friendliness of the back streets. Life is at its most uninhibited here. Dilapidation is often more interesting to a painter as is anything that has been used and lived with – whether it be an ivy-covered cottage, a broken farm-cart or an old tenement. (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14). Eardley became a familiar figure sketching and photographing in the streets, drawn to the games and squabbles of the neighbourhood’s children and to evidence of lives lived in and amongst its decaying architecture. She worked spontaneously, at speed and often on the modest scale afforded by pocket sketchbooks, using larger sheets, chalks and pastels when developing imagery on return to her studio. Works such as Children Playing Marbles (Lot 166) show how Eardley instinctively empathised with childhood emotions, as a group of youngsters are absorbed in the drama of a competitive game. In The Blue Pinafore (Lot 167) a child is caught in moment of contemplation. Her facial expression is depicted with tenderness and her unselfconscious pose speaks of innocence, whilst the thick application of pastel – sometimes highly coloured – signifies form and the artist’s energetic technique. As Eardley became known in Townhead, so her natural rapport with the local children developed and some came to her studio to sit for her. She recalled: Most of them I get on with…some interest me much more as characters…they don’t need much encouragement: they don’t pose…they are completely uninhibited and they just behave as they would among themselves…They just let out all their life and energy they haven’t been able to at school. (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.48) The studio works could be more considered, as seen in Studies of Amanda (Lot 174) and Portrait Study (Lot 173). Boy with Blue Trousers (Lot 172) shows the ease at which she put her sitters, a whirlwind of lines applied over colour fields to define his features, his gap-toothed smile revealing his age and good humour. As a son of Eardley’s dealer, Bill Macaulay of The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh, Eardley will have known the boy well. Two Children (Lot 169) is a particularly resolved and successful work. Skilful layering and blending of multi-coloured pastels focus attention on the children’s faces, their overlapping pose suggesting the intimacy of siblings. Eardley’s gestural technique communicates the patterning of their clothing, which gives way to free form mark-making. Ginger (Lot 170) is a dignified yet tender portrait. Executed with oil on board, the boy looks directly at the artist (and by extension the viewer). As Christopher Andreae has written about such works: They were portraits not caricatures. She had too much rapport with them for such distortion. And direct, daily experience of them actually meant she knew them well and painted them in their world…she [did not]…let sentimentalism sift sugar over her understanding of these kids. (Christopher Andreae, Joan Eardley, Farnham 2013, p. 127)

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE GOSSIP
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE GOSSIP

      Est: £3,000 - £5,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE GOSSIP With the Artist's Estate Inventory Number ED607 lower right, pastel (12.5cm x 10cm (5in x 4in)) Provenance: Mercury Gallery, London where acquired by the present owner's aunt in 1992

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) A GLASGOW BOY
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) A GLASGOW BOY

      Est: £4,000 - £6,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) A GLASGOW BOY Signed, pastel (19cm x 10cm (7.5in x 4in)) Provenance: Bourne Fine Art, Edinburgh

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE SEA NO.5
      Jun. 08, 2023

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE SEA NO.5

      Est: £20,000 - £30,000

      § JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) THE SEA NO.5 Signed and dated '63 verso, oil on board (30cm x 69.5cm (11.75in x 27.5in)) Provenance: Roland, Browse and Delbanco, London Acquired by the great-aunt of the present owner Note: Eardley’s first visited Catterline in 1951 and the village became a new stimulus where she could depict the immensities of nature in the open air, painting and sketching 'on the spot' in all seasons, weather conditions and times of day. As Patrick Elliott has explained Catterline was not a picturesque Highland village…but a working harbour with boats, fishing nets and fields of wheat, barley and oats. People may be absent from Eardley’s Catterline paintings, but their presence is felt.’ (Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, Edinburgh 2016, p.10) Eardley made frequent painting trips to Catterline between 1952 and 1954, before renting the small cottage at No. 1 South Row. She thereafter split her time between Glasgow and the village. Whilst keeping No.1 as a store, Eardley went on to purchase No. 18 South Row in 1959. Her relationship with the immediate area deepened and in 1961 Eardley declared: When I’m painting in the north-east I hardly ever move out of the village…I find that the more I know of the place, or of one particular spot, the more I find to paint…I don’t think I’m painting what I feel about scenery, certainly not scenery with a name; because that is the north-east, just vast wastes, vast seas, vast areas of cliff…well – you’ve just go to paint it.’ (As quoted in Elliott and Galastro, op.cit., p.11) The Sea No.5 (Lot 163) is a bravura example of Eardley’s heroic efforts to express the movement and power of the sea at Catterline, albeit on an intimate scale. She turned to this subject in earnest after moving to No. 18 South Row, which had a spectacular view down to the bay and the ever-changing state of the North Sea. Patrick Elliott has continued: The worse the weather, the more Eardley wanted to paint on the beach…Her ear was attuned to the noise of the crashing waves: she could judge, from her bed, if it would be worth painting. If she was in Glasgow and heard reports of north-easterly gales brewing off the east coast, she would happily pack her bags and head north. (Elliott and Galastro, ibid., p.119) Painted in 1963, not long before Eardley’s premature death, the elongated horizontal format of The Sea No. 5 mirrors the artist’s experience of the scene before her. Mere glimpses of the beach are visible as Eardley focussed on the sheer power of the natural phenomenon playing out in front of her easel. The highly-charged gestural and abstract technique was informed by European Tachiste painting and American Abstract Expressionism, placing Eardley at the cutting-edge of post-war British art.

      Lyon & Turnbull
    • Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Haystacks and Sun (painted in the late 1950'sStudio inventory no. EE 241)
      May. 17, 2023

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Haystacks and Sun (painted in the late 1950'sStudio inventory no. EE 241)

      Est: £25,000 - £35,000

      Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) Haystacks and Sun oil on board 25.4 x 60.3cm (10 x 23 3/4in). painted in the late 1950's Studio inventory no. EE 241

      Bonhams
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