Eardley’s eye is unsentimental and unsparing, and the accumulation of imagery derived from direct, participant observation forms a remarkable record and a homage to a lost way of life. Her many drawings of children have a hook, an element of instinctive observation which lend authenticity and the power to move the viewer. In Two Chums it is the conjunction of the boys, the elder with his arm around the smaller child, his eyes look across, as if protective.
About Joan Eardley
There is an enduring fascination for Joan Eardley far beyond her unconventional life and early death at the age of forty-two. Born in 1921 in Sussex, Joan Eardley’s family moved to Scotland in 1939 and a year later she joined the Glasgow School of Art. She found subjects in the shipyards of Clydebank and the slums of Townhead, at first the run-down tenements and buildings and later the children and streetlife around Rottenrow where the character of the people and the place became the vital subject of her work.
