Boy’s Head: A Glasgow Boy
About this artwork
The boy who posed for this painting is Jim Samson, part of a family of twelve children who lived in the Townhead area of central Glasgow, near Eardley’s studio at 204 St James Road. His brother, Andrew, the eldest of the Samson children, met Eardley first, in about 1953. Andrew and his brothers and sisters soon became her favourite models. Jim posed for five or more paintings. The Townhead area was in an overcrowded, decrepit state in the 1950s, and the poverty was extreme. Jim Samson acknowledged that part of the pleasure of posing for Eardley was that she would give them syrup and cheese sandwiches and a few pennies. He was born on Christmas day 1944 and would have been about eight or nine when he posed here. Aged sixteen, he joined the Merchant Navy and later settled in Melbourne Australia.
Updated May 2022
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artist:
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title:Boy’s Head: A Glasgow Boy
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date created:About 1953 - 1954
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materials:Oil on board
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measurements:27.00 x 23.00 cm; Framed: 43.50 x 39.60 x 4.50 cm / 3.00 kg
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object type:
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credit line:The Henry and Sula Walton collection: bequeathed 2012
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accession number:GMA 5244
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gallery:
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depicted:
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subject:
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artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Joan Eardley
Joan Eardley
Born in West Sussex, Eardley moved to Glasgow at the outbreak of war. She studied at Glasgow School of Art and at Hospitalfield House under James Cowie. Cowie helped to shape her preference for everyday subjects. In 1949 Eardley rented a studio in the centre of Glasgow, and a few years later moved...