The exhibition running until the end of June features work by Scottish artist, Joan Eardley, and, set over two rooms, it is a new insight into her expressive paintings.
Joan Eardley: The Nature of Painting consists of more than 30 works by Eardley, 14 of which are from the national collection, and other works on paper and archival material which will be displayed in the Keiller Library at Modern Two. The archives were donated to the National Galleriies of Scotland by Joan Eardey’s sister, Patricia in 1987, and will offer a look at the artist’s world.
Eardley is known for her studies of the everyday – particularly of the children she saw outside her Glasgow studio. The artist was born in West Sussex and moved to Glasgow during the Second World War in 1939.
She went on to study at Glasgow School of Art and Hospitalfield House and was taught by Hugh Adam Crawford and James Cowie. Later in her life she bought a cottage in the fishing village of Catterline in Aberdeenshire which also provided inspiration with the dramatic seascapes which she created. Joan Eardley’s ashes were scattered on the beach at Catherine after her death from cancer in 1963.
The Edinburgh exhibition also includes works by Claude Monet, John Constable, Bet Low, William McTaggart, Jean Dubuffet and Antoni Tàpies. For the first time Monet’s 1891. Grainstacks: Snow Effect will be displayed. Monet also found inspiration out of doors.
Kerry Gledhill, Senior Librarian and Lead Curator of Joan Eardley: The Nature of Painting at the National Galleries of Scotland said: “Joan Eardley was an artist so completely driven to paint the truth of what she saw around her that she pushed her medium to its very limits. She was drawn to subjects which tap into a common humanity, a connection to nature or a sense of community and kinship. Like all great artists, her paintings speak to us across the intervening decades. The opportunity to show Eardley’s work alongside that of Constable, Monet and Tàpies, to name just a few, gives us a unique insight into the nature of painting, experimentation and creativity.”
- Joan Eardley: The Nature of Painting
- 2 April – 28 June 2026
- National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two Free admission
- Open daily, 10am-5pm
- Joan Eardley | The Nature of Painting | National Galleries of Scotland
