JOAN EARDLEY R.S.A. (SCOTTISH 1921-1963) §
OLD COBBLER, ASSISI
£3,528
Scottish Paintings & Sculpture
Auction: Evening Sale: 08 December 2022 | From 18:00
Description
Charcoal on buff paper, a copy of Eardley's receipt for the drawing verso
Dimensions
47cm x 35cm (18.5in x 13.75in)
Provenance
Provenance: E. N. (Ned) Marshall, Glasgow
Footnote
With a note to backboard 'Painted Oct. 1948 during travelling scholarship. He was at his doorway and invited Joan in when there was a sudden downpour. She later wrote that she was thrilled and her hand went "wibbly, wobbly"... I asked him if I might draw him and he moved all to his little bench and arranged himself facing me.'
This charcoal was drawn in 1948 in Assisi during Eardley's travelling scholarship. In a letter home she described how she was watching an old cobbler, busy in his doorway, when a sudden deluge prompted him to invite her inside. Few young women, along in a foreign country and unable to speak the language, would have dared follow him, but Eardley was thrilled with the opportunity. She described how her hand went 'all wibbly wobbly' as she drew her model who set himself facing the shy artist 'which I didn't particularly want' (as quoted in Cordelia Oliver, Joan Eardley RSA, Edinburgh 1988).
Eardley drew at least the current lot and a full-length version of the same subject, known as 'Cobbler at Work' (see Oliver, op.cit. p. 32, ill.b/w) on this occasion. Old Cobbler, Assisi has all the freshness and vigour of an impromptu life study and its quality was recognised by Edward N. Marshall, to whom Eardley sold it. Marshall was a major Glasgow collector who owned works by McTaggart, Peploe and Fergusson. He lent two of Eardley’s works to the Memorial Exhibition held to mark her death in 1963.