Joan Eardley

Joan Eardley (1921-63) is considered to be one of the most influential Scottish painters of her generation. Her paintings and drawings reflect urban and rural Scotland in an expressive visual language unlike any other artist’s. This new, highly illustrated survey of her painting does renewed justice to the range, scale and power of her work. Christopher Andreae provides a fresh assessment of her work and its relative Scottishness or universality. He relates her art to the work of contemporaries such as Josef Herman, to inspired teachers such as Hugh Adam Crawford, and considers the impact of Renaissance art, of 20th-century European Expressionism and Modern American art. The author also looks at Eardley's relationships, quotes from letters previously embargoed, and discusses published and unpublished assessments of her work both during her life and posthumously.