University news

Joan Eardley’s Seated Boy has been allocated to The Hunterian under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The Hunterian is the first Scottish museum and art gallery to be given a work under the scheme introduced by the UK Government in 2013.

The Hunterian was chosen to receive the work by the donor because of its strong collection of Scottish Art which includes works by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, the Scottish Colourists, Glasgow Boys and Eardley herself.

The Hunterian is home to 42 works by Eardley, 12 of which are paintings and drawings of children. Seated Boy, painted in 1955, adds significantly to The Hunterian’s existing representation of her work and is an extremely important addition to The Hunterian’s collection of Scottish Art.

Some 40 years after her death, Joan Eardley remains one of Scotland’s most universally admired and recognised post-war painters. Her paintings of Glasgow tenement children capture a vanishing world and her drawings and oils of the North-East coast of Scotland are among the most celebrated works in 20th century Scottish art.  

Eardley moved to Glasgow in 1940 to study at Glasgow School of Art and from 1949, rented a studio in Townhead, an area of great deprivation which was to undergo significant redevelopment in the post-war period.  Eardley painted both its tenements and local people, particularly the Samson family who provided her with rich subject matter in the 1950s and 1960s.
Seated Boy is a full length oil painting, tentatively identified as Andrew Samson, one of the Samson children. Freely painted, it captures the young boy’s features, conveying his awkwardness with a strong sense of robust realism.

It belongs to a relatively small group of oil paintings focusing on full length representations of the Samson boys. Not quite portraits and not quite genre scenes, they are extraordinary character studies of ordinary children. The majority are in private collections.

Seated Boy will go on display at the Hunterian Art Gallery from Tuesday 23 June after conservation and reframing.

The Cultural Gifts Scheme was launched in March 2013 in a bid to encourage philanthropy for the arts, as it enables UK taxpayers to donate important objects to the nation during their lifetime.

Hunterian Director, Professor David Gaimster said: “The Hunterian is delighted to be the first Scottish gallery to benefit from the Cultural Gifts Scheme. Seated Boy is a major addition to our significant group of works by Joan Eardley and we are extremely grateful for this generous gift.”

Culture Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: “I welcome the first item to be received in Scotland through the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The Scheme allows Scottish Ministers to accept important works of art on behalf of our nation which can then enrich the range of internationally renowned artworks and artifacts available for everyone visiting Scotland’s collections to enjoy.

“Eardley was a prominent Glasgow artist and it is fitting that Seated Boy has been gifted to The Hunterian as an addition to their Eardley collection.”

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For further information or images contact:

Harriet Gaston, Communications Manager, The Hunterian

Email: Harriet.Gaston@glasgow.ac.uk

 

Object information:

Joan Eardley RSA (1921-1963)

Seated Boy, 1955

Oil on board

68.5 x 29.1cm

 

The Cultural Gifts Scheme was launched in March 2013 to encourage philanthropy for the arts. The Acceptance in Lieu Panel, chaired by Edward Harley, advises Ministers on all objects offered under the Cultural Gifts Scheme. The Scheme enables UK taxpayers to donate important objects to the nation during their lifetime. Items accepted under the Scheme are allocated to public collections and are available for all. In return, donors will receive a reduction in their income tax, capital gains tax or corporation tax liability, based on a set percentage of the value of the object they are donating: 30 per cent for individuals and 20 per cent for companies.

The acceptance of this painting will generate a tax reduction of £16,500.

The Hunterian is one of the world's leading University museums and one of Scotland’s greatest cultural assets. Built on Dr William Hunter’s founding bequest, The Hunterian collections include scientific instruments used by James Watt, Joseph Lister and Lord Kelvin; outstanding Roman artefacts from the Antonine Wall; major natural and life sciences holdings; Hunter’s own extensive anatomical teaching collection; one of the world’s greatest numismatic collections and impressive ethnographic objects from Captain Cook’s Pacific voyages.

The Hunterian is also home to one of the most distinguished public art collections in Scotland and features the world’s largest permanent display of the work of James McNeill Whistler, the largest single holding of the work of Scottish artist, architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) and The Mackintosh House, the reassembled interiors from his Glasgow home.

First published: 19 June 2015