About this artwork

This is a lively depiction of a small but sturdy-looking fishing boat, confidently painted in block-like brushstrokes. The boat is not French, as the title might imply, but is a type of fishing boat once common on the east coast of Scotland. Eardley lived and worked in the village of Catterline, south of Aberdeen, in the later years of her life. The ‘Seine’ of the title is taken from a type of fishing net which was suspended vertically in the water, with floats at the top and weights on the bottom. The boat has been identified as the Mary Gown. Its home port was Stonehaven, an important fishing town between Aberdeen and Catterline. By the late 1950s it was fishing mainly for catching crab in creels. The style of the painting indicates that it was painted in about 1957.

Updated 2021

see media
  • artist:
  • title:
    Seine Boat
  • date created:
    About 1960
  • materials:
    Oil on canvas
  • measurements:
    61.50 x 51.00 x 2.00 cm; Framed: 64.60 x 54.20 x 5.50 cm / 6.00 kg
  • object type:
  • credit line:
    Presented by the George and Isobel Neillands Collection 1988
  • accession number:
    GMA 3322
  • gallery:
  • subject:
  • artwork photographed by:
    Antonia Reeve
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Joan Eardley

Joan Eardley