Joan Eardley, R.S.A.

Cyril Gerber Fine Art, Glasgow;
Lyon & Turnbull, Edinburgh, 2 December 2009, lot 148, where purchased by the present owners

Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Joan Eardley A Sense of Place, 2016

A. Christopher, Joan Eardley, Surrey, 2013, illustrated p.8, pl.2;
P. Elliot, Joan Eardley A Sense of Place, Edinburgh, 2016, illustrated p.82, pl.60

Original canvas. Some minor frame abrasions to the very edges of the canvas. Some craquelure in the upper right corner and a small spot of paint loss in the far right chimney of the cottage; otherwise the work appears in good overall condition. There is an unfinished painting verso. Under ultraviolet light there appear to be a few small isolated areas of retouching in the sky. Held in gilt plaster frame with a canvas inset.
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Joan Eardley first visited the small fishing village of Catterline in the early 1950s. Her friend, Annette Stephen, bought her first cottage in the remote and quiet village, allowing the artist to spend part of each year away from urban Glasgow. In 1954 Eardley moved to Catterline more permanently, buying her own cottage that lacked electricity, running water and sanitation. The power and presence of her work lies in her absolute commitment to living and working in environments that many of her background would have considered challenging. When she first moved to Catterline her works were not the windswept landscapes or roaring seas she’s well known for, as she started by painting the cottages. This is perhaps because she had spent the previous years painting the graffiti-covered tenements of Townhead. In her Catterline paintings Eardley used techniques that were in tune with Abstract Expressionism from America and Tachisme from Europe, which she absorbed in part and developed into a style completely and uniquely her own. In the present painting, which was executed around the time she bought her own cottage in 1954, she depicted a small, solitary cottage within a superior landscape. The deep green vegetation below and the vast blue-grey sky above engulf the cottage as it merges into the landscape.