A painting of a Glasgow street child is now on show alongside one of her Catterline landscapes.
Joan Eardley painted working-class children in Glasgow through the 1950s, working from a studio in the city. She didn’t sentimentalise them. She painted specific kids, and the results have a directness that sets them apart from almost anything else in Scottish art of that period.
One of those children was Andrew Samson. His full-length portrait, Andrew (1955), has just been acquired by the University of Aberdeen and is now on display in the Sir Duncan Rice Library. It’s the first time the University has been able to show Eardley’s Glasgow work alongside her Catterline paintings, which defined the final years of her life before her death in 1963 at 42.
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Two sides of the same artist
Eardley’s Catterline paintings tend to get the most attention. Her later career was spent in the village, just south of Aberdeen, painting landscapes along the coast. Those paintings are well represented in Scottish collections.
Andrew was owned by Eric and Marjorie Linklater. Eric was a novelist, Aberdeen graduate, and former Rector of the University. Marjorie donated the couple’s art collection to the University in 1976 after his death. That collection already held a Catterline landscape by Eardley, but the portrait wasn’t included at the time.
Bringing it in now means the Linklater Collection can show both strands of Eardley’s practice in one place. The collection runs to eleven Scottish modernist works, including paintings by JD Fergusson, SJ Peploe, Leslie Hunter, and Anne Redpath.
Filling in the gaps
Eardley was queer, and her significance wasn’t always fully acknowledged during her lifetime. The University has said the acquisition supports its commitment to collecting work by women and LGBTQ+ artists who have been historically underrepresented. It’s a small but deliberate step, and it gives students and researchers direct access to a painting that has been in private hands for decades.
Neil Curtis, Head of University Collections, said the purchase allows the University to “display a more fully representative view of Joan Eardley’s work and better understand the Linklater family’s collecting legacy.”
The exhibition
This year marks 50 years since the Linklater Bequest, and the University is marking the anniversary with Aberdeen Artworlds: the Linklater Collection, running in the Gallery of the Sir Duncan Rice Library until 6 December 2026. The exhibition is free.
Magnus Linklater, son of Eric and Marjorie, attended a private unveiling last week.
If you’re around Old Aberdeen at any point this year, it’s worth a visit. You don’t often get to see these two sides of Eardley’s work in the same room.
