Joan Eardley sketches of Glasgow street kids to be auctioned

Glasgow Times

30-05-2025

The 11 small pastel and charcoal drawings were selected from one of Eardley's sketchbooks, which was given to a doctor after her death by her close friend Angus Neil, who died in 1992.
Eardley is considered one of the great British artists of the 20th century, and the collection is to be sold live online and in Edinburgh by auctioneers Lyon & Turnbull on June 5.
The works depict studies of street children in Townhead, for which she is best known, alongside sketches of Catterline on the north-east coast of Scotland, where she lived with Mr Neil.
The friends met at Scottish art school, Hospitalfield House in Arbroath, Angus, in 1947, and Mr Neil would often stay in her Townhead studio for long periods of time.
When Eardley moved to Catterline, he helped renovate her cottage and became a fixture around the small fishing village.
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After the war, Mr Neil struggled with his mental health, and Eardley became a pivotal figure in his life, looking out for him and helping him financially.
When Eardley died of cancer in 1963, aged 42, a distraught Mr Neil was admitted to the psychiatric hospital Sunnyside Royal near Montrose.
The sketchbook was given by Mr Neil to a GP in Glasgow in the 1960s, who had provided him with room and board during a breakdown, and has been treasured by the family ever since.
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The auction also includes four large works by Eardley, including Fishing Nets, Catterline, which is valued at £30,000-£50,000.
It featured in a major exhibition of Eardley's work in the National Galleries of Scotland in 2016-17.
Jeannie, valued at £40,000-£60,000, depicts an elderly lady, Jeannie Kelso, who was befriended by Eardley during holidays to the Isle of Arran in the early 1940s.
Blue Jersey, which depicts a child holding her baby brother, is estimated to fetch between £20,000 and £30,000.
A rare example of an early Eardley painting, Street Scene, from the 1940s, has a valuation of £7,000-£10,000.
Charlotte Riordan, senior specialist at Lyon & Turnbull, said: 'These sketches epitomise the intuitive mark-making and consummate skill of Joan Eardley.
"To me, they also speak volumes about the woman herself; they're direct – blunt even – but clever and charismatic.
"A total original.'