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Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) The Back Green image 1
Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) The Back Green image 2
Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963) The Back Green image 3
Lot 52AR

Joan Eardley RSA
(British, 1921-1963)
The Back Green

21 May 2025, 12:00 BST
Edinburgh

Sold for £12,800 inc. premium

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Joan Eardley RSA (British, 1921-1963)

The Back Green
pastel on glass paper
23 x 28cm (9 1/16 x 11in).

Footnotes

Provenance
Collection of Mrs Myrtle Solomon.
With The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, stock no. 1066.
Private collection, UK; thence by descent.

Exhibited
Edinburgh, The Scottish Gallery, Mixed Exhibition, The Edinburgh Festival, 11 August - 6 September 1995, cat. no. 23.

Eardley rented a studio in Townhead, a district of Glasgow. For a young single woman in the 1950s, this was a bold, brave move. Its tenements were condemned and earmarked for demolition, its inhabitants lived in poverty. Yet it was here that she discovered a subject which inspired her. Eardley went out on the streets, capturing the everyday life. "I like the friendliness of the backstreets," she said. "Life is at its most uninhibited here." (As quoted in Patrick Elliott and Anne Galastro, Joan Eardley: A Sense of Place, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2016, p.14).

This vibrant pastel honestly captures the and reflects the colourful 'patchwork' of community life.

Additional information