Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963)
Children Playing and Boarded-up Shop
oil on board
24.5 x 50cm (9 5/8 x 19 11/16in).
Footnotes:
Provenance
With Aitken Dott & Son, Edinburgh, 1961, no. 45.
Professor and Mrs Mitchison (acquired from the above); thence by descent to the present owner.

Exhibited
Edinburgh, Aitken Dott & Son, Joan Eardley Exhibition, 29 May-10 June 1961, no. 45.


From 1949 until her death in 1963, Joan Eardley took a studio on Cochrane Street on the edge of the Townhead district of Glasgow. This area was synonymous with the overcrowding, poor living conditions, and dilapidation typical of many of the old tenements of the city at this time. Despite these conditions, there were vibrant communities of people for whom this was home. It was exactly these subjects of the people and streets that captivated Eardley and which she wished to portray in her Glasgow artworks.

Perhaps best known from this period are Eardley's portraits of local children which she completed from her studio. However, she also walked the streets in search of subjects, pushing a pram filled with painting materials and setting up wherever she found something she wished to capture. Children Playing and Boarded-up Shop is one such subject. Painted on a small enough scale to have been completed on the spot, Eardley has brought together these two focal and clashing subjects – the run-down shop front and the decay that this represents, alongside the bustling life of the children who live amongst it. This clash between the death of the surroundings, but life of the inhabitants, is perhaps signified by the use of a largely muted palette which is energised through bursts and flashes of red, pink, and yellow. The children are huddled together and create a buzz of activity which further help to animate the whole scene.
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