Eardley, Joan (1921–1963)

English painter. Born in May 1921 in Warnham, Sussex, England; died Aug 16, 1963, in Glasgow, Scotland; dau. of William Eardley (army captain) and Irene Morrison; attended Goldsmith College of Art (1938); studied with Hugh Adam Crawford at Glasgow School of Art, graduating with honors (1944); attended Patrick Allen-Fraser School of Art (1947).

Famed 20th-century painter of landscapes, seascapes and studies of children, suffered from intermittent depression throughout life; began to sketch and paint tenement life in Glasgow (1949), becoming so well-known that ill-clothed children came unannounced to pose at her Cochrane Street studio; bought dilapidated Watch House cottage on sea cliffs near the seaside village of Catterline (1950); painted with richer colors and in more experimental and Expressionist style, responding to constant changes of sea, sky and land; showed an affinity with Pollock and de Kooning in later, more abstract work; elected associate to Royal Scottish Academy (RSA, 1955), the youngest person to receive the honor to that date, and later granted full membership (1963); at time of death, was just beginning to be recognized outside Scotland; honored with major retrospective exhibition at Talbot Rice Centre and RSA, Edinburgh (1988); well represented in Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.

See also Cordelia Oliver, Joan Eardley, RSA (Mainstream, 1988).