Express & Star

Joan Eardley paintings to be auctioned in centenary year

The artist died aged 42 in 1963.

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Paintings by Joan Eardley

A group of paintings by acclaimed artist Joan Eardley is to go under the hammer in an online auction this week in the centenary year of her birth.

Pictures of children in the Townhead area of Glasgow, still lifes, landscapes and a seascape are among the seven works which will be sold by Edinburgh-based Lyon & Turnbull on Thursday.

Eardley, who is currently the subject of a year-long celebration of her life and work to mark 100 years since her birth, died aged just 42 in 1963.

A highlight of the sale is an “exceptionally” rare late still life of summer flowers painted by Eardley in the village of Catterline on the Aberdeenshire coast.

The oil painting, Jar of Summer Flowers, thought to be painted in 1962, has an estimate of between £30,000 to £50,000.

Eardley, who had a studio in Cochrane Street, Glasgow, is renowned for her pictures of children in the city, some of which also feature in the sale such as Children Playing in the Street, estimated at £4,000 to £6,000.

Nick Curnow, head of paintings at Lyon & Turnbull, said: “The works on sale this week represent each of the key areas of Eardley’s oeuvre and help tell the story of this extraordinary woman’s life.

“The Jar of Summer Flowers is an extraordinary painting up close. Only a very small group of Eardley still lifes exist, dating exclusively to a short time period between 1961 and her death in August 1963.

“Her oil paintings are hugely expressive. She was such a physical painter. You can see that in the layers of paint and the ways in which she applied it.

“All the works in this sale demonstrated that she was an artist who deserves to be recognised far and wide, especially in this, her centenary year.”

Born in Sussex in 1921 to a Scottish mother and an English father, Eardley was considered a member of the post-war British avant-garde during her lifetime.

The selection of seven paintings also includes works which highlight her distinctive interpretation of land and sea around the village of Catterline.

The Scottish Paintings and Sculpture auction takes place online at 2pm on June 10.

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