The unconventional figure of Joan Eardley will be familiar to anyone interested in modern Scottish art. She painted poor children in Glasgow, was drawn to ordinary working people and beggars, and she fervently painted the sea outside in all weathers. Eardley’s working practises make it easy to visualise her as an isolated figure; outside of the stream of artistic influences. However, the exhibition offsets this tendency by positioning her in relation to other artists.
Influence and Joan Eardley
Joan Eardley’s sister Pat Black donated an archive of Eardley’s studio to the National Galleries of Scotland. It included letters, cuttings, and postcards of images by Monet, Moore, Van Gogh, Turner, Constable, Paul Nash, and others. Paintings by these artists are displayed in the exhibition.
Nevertheless, in a 1961 newspaper interview, the critic Sidney Goodsir Smith struggles to get a consistent answer from Eardley about her influences. At one point she even denies looking at paintings. This does not enlighten us much, but the word influence is broad. It could refer to notable artists, friends, teachers, nature, or objects. It could be conscious or semi-conscious. What is clear is that Eardley was sufficiently interested in other artists to keep images of their work; and to praise them in her letters.
Spontaneity and planning
Eardley is strongly associated with spontaneous landscapes such as Catterline in Winter (1963), with its deceptively rudimentary marks. This is displayed next to Monet’s Grain stacks: Snow Effect (1891). Monet painted many grain stacks at speed, showing the light at different times of day. Eardley too painted her landscapes in bursts, matching the energy of the weather. Likewise, her pictures of children or beggars had to be realised quickly before they moved.
However, she drew on prior knowledge. Although her use of colour and composition seems intuitive, it’s also likely she was aware of colour theory. In Snow (about 1958), small splashes of red, yellow and orange are placed with greys and browns. Small areas of bright colour can paradoxically seem large because the eye focusses on them. This lightens the winter gloom, while also guiding the eye round the painting.
There are rare examples of carefully planned compositions. A monochrome sketch of fishing nets shows the composition of the painting Drying Salmon Nets Hung Up (1951) with colours noted on the drawing.
Accidents
The Taschistes attracted Eardley because they exploited accidents. Dance in Space before the Storm (Appel, 1959)is juxtaposed with Eardley’s Boats on the Shore (about 1963). The text tells us that Appel applied oil paint straight from the tube, smearing it on with his hands to depict the energy of the storm. Inevitably, reduced control allowed for surprises in the mark-making. We can see this influence in the rough marks of Boats on the Shore.
Eardley admired Henry Moore. He used a method of layering wax crayon under watery media to carve out light in The Shelter drawings (1940-41). This led to unpredictable marks where the wax repelled water. Eardley would mix incongruous materials such as watercolour and pastel, creating unusual definitions, such as those in Head of a Red-Haired Girl (date unknown).
Identification and the subject
Like farmers and fishermen, Eardley felt closely connected to the landscape, in particular the sea. This involvement is seen in collage elements. Seascape (Foam and Blue Sky) (1962) has real sand ingrained in the picture.
Identification is also evident in the depictions of children. These reflect Eardley’s involvement with them as people. She adds sweet wrappers to the pictures. The collage heightens the materiality of the scene, perhaps reducing the psychological distance between audience and subject.
Sounds and rhythms are translated into paint. In the sea paintings, the stable sometimes roaring repetition of the waves is expressed in continuous greyish, blueish brown spaces, with louder colour notes. Whereas the sounds and rhythms of Townhead or Venice are articulated in colour disjunctions, such as reds and blues.
Comparisons and context
The exhibition aims to complement and contextualise Eardley’s art amongst other artists. Some of the pictures seem to be inspired comparisons rather than influences: Phoebe Anna Traquair’s Shepherd Boy (1891) is placed next to Eardley’s Boy’s Head: a Glasgow Boy (about 1953-4) –perhaps one of Eardley’s deeper paintings of a child.
The two paintings are remarkably similar in size and form. Eardley would have been aware of Traquair, but their styles are so different it’s unlikely that Traquair directly influenced Eardley. However, other placings such as Three Sketches for Landscape, (Pembrokeshire) (1945, Graham Sutherland), and Sea and Snow, Catterline (about 1958) show affinities in the abstraction of forms.
The Nature of Painting necessarily has a loose order, as it’s uncertain how engaged Eardley was with some of the artists. This has the advantage of not over attributing influence. However, the exhibition might easily not have cohered. My feeling is that it does cohere, primarily because of skilful juxtapositions which throw Eardley’s painting methods and style into relief.
Joan Eardley: The Nature of Painting is on until Sunday, 28 June 2026, at ModernTwo, 73 Belford Rd, EH4 3DS
More from Amanda Wheatley
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