Joan Eardley

Who was Joan Eardley?

Joan Eardley was a British artist.

Joan Kathleen Harding Eardley was born in Warnham, Sussex, England where her parents were dairy farmers. Her mother, Irene Morrison, was Scottish. Joan had a sister, Patricia, born in 1922, died 2013. Their father suffered a mental breakdown during the girls' early childhood, having been wounded in a gas attack during World War I; when Joan was nine he committed suicide. Joan's mother then took the two girls to live with her own mother in Blackheath, London in 1929 An aunt paid for the girls' education at a private school, where Joan's artistic talent was first recognised.

Eardley trained at the local art school in Blackheath, and in 1938 enrolled at Goldsmiths College. In 1939 she, her mother and her sister moved to Glasgow to live with her mother's relatives in Bearsden and in 1940 Eardley enrolled at Glasgow School of Art as a day student. She studied under Hugh Adam Crawford and was influenced by the Scottish Colourists In 1943 she was awarded a diploma in drawing and painting, and won the Sir James Guthrie Prize for portraiture. The prize, a biography of Guthrie by Sir James L Caw and published by Macmillan & Co. of London in 1932, is still in the possession of Eardley's family.