Description
Oil on canvas laid down
Dimensions
41cm x 31cm (16in x 12in)
Footnote
Provenance:T.R.Craig Esq C.B.E. and thence by descent
Note:Craig was a friend and supporter of Eardley's friend Angus Neil and family tradition says that it was acquired through him. A very similar still life was sold in these rooms 28 November 2006, lot 171 for £28,000
By 1962, Joan Eardley's ill health was keeping her indoors in her Catterline cottage, no longer able to paint en plein air in the elements. Consequently, only a very small clutch of still lifes exist, dating exclusively to this short time period between 1962-3.
Though Eardley resented her confinement, these oils nonetheless burst with all the wild texture and vitality of her landscapes of the surrounding cornfields and meadows. Taking a traditionally feminine genre of painting, Eardley individualised her approach to the subject and the result is both striking and beautiful. The layers of scumbled paint and the myriad ways in which she applies it are a visual feast for the eyes, not to mention a demonstration of her distinctive prowess as a painter.
1963 was the year Eardley was elected to the Royal Scottish Academy, and finally gained recognition south of the border with a hugely successful show in Rowland, Browse and Delbanco, London. Her life was tragically cut short at just 42 years of age in the August of that year.