The secret love of one of the most influential female British painters of the 20th century has come to light in a series of daily love letters to the wife of a Glasgow sheriff.
Joan Eardley who found a second home in the fishing village of Catterline, near Stonehaven, painting the local seascape wrote daily letters to Lady Audrey Walker, the wife of Allan Grierson Walker, the Sheriff Principal of Lanarkshire.
Author Christopher Andreae has published a selection of the revealing letters in his new book Joan Eardley, 50 years after her death.
“It’s one of those silly things that everybody’s known about or suspected for years so why not get it out in the open?” Mr Andreae said. “Towards the end of her life in 1963 there was an exhibition in London and Audrey said she wasn’t able to make it.
“Joan said ‘Not to bother, you’re in all the paintings anyway,’ and I thought that was lovely.”
That sentiment is echoed throughout the letters, which have been published for the first time since a family embargo was lifted in 2009. No letters to the artist from Audrey exist but she wrote a tribute to Joan, which is published in the new book comparing her to the North Sea.
Mr Andreae said: “Joan had a temperament like the sea. She could be very calm and quiet but then she could flare up. Audrey said she was like the summer sea and the winter sea.”
The letters quoted in Mr Andreae’s book cover the period from 1955, when Joan was writing from Catterline.
She first went to the little fishing village in 1950 after she contracted the mumps during an exhibition of her work in Aberdeen.
“She loved it immediately but she didn’t go there for any great period until 1955.” Mr Andreae said. “She thought she would only stay a month or two but she loved it.
“I think she needed to escape from the city. I think she feels she had painted slum children (in Glasgow) for some time and she had always liked landscapes. Having found Catterline then, it was an obvious place to be.”
One letter to Audrey from 1960 reads: “Wee dear person this must be an awful wee letter, cos I’m awful tired after a hard day’s work.
“There are so many things to paint. It’s hard to keep up.
“I almost feel I may end up with nothing due to trying to do too much! Still, it doesn’t really matter.
“It’s just good to feel that there is so much that could be worked on. No shortage!”
Joan died in 1963 of breast cancer when she was only 42.
The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh opens an exhibition of her work next month to mark the 50 years since her death.
Joan Eardley by Christopher Andreae is published by Lund Humphries.