Eric Tucker

For the Indian Army officer, see Eric James Tucker.

Eric Tucker (1932–2018) was an English painter and draughtsman, who was born, raised, and spent most of his life at the family home in Warrington on the Lancashire—Cheshire border. He is best known for his depictions of working-class social life in industrial North-West England.[1] The media have often described Tucker as the "secret Lowry".[2]

Life and work

In 1932, Tucker was the first-born child to parents Eric and Joan — respectively a greengrocer and a domestic maid — and grew up in working class poverty in an area of England that underwent great hardship during the Great Depression. In 1942, his father Eric was killed in active service in the British Army in the North African Campaign of the Second World War, the loss leaving a profound impression on him.[3]

He received no formal art education, was a frequent truant and left school at 14, though interested in painting, he went every weekend by train to the art galleries in Manchester nearby and on one occasion at the Tib Lane Gallery he had an encounter with L.S. Lowry. He did his basic training in National Service at Catterick, North Yorkshire before being assigned to the Royal Horse Guards in Windsor, Berkshire then West Germany, where he ended up working in the cookhouse, after a number of periods in the glasshouse for going AWOL, due to having an anti-authoritarian streak.[4] He was apprenticed as a sign-writer, but never took this further, and worked variously as a boxer, a steelworker, a gravedigger, and a building labourer.[5] Not many people beyond close family were aware that he painted. Unknown during his lifetime, Tucker made very few attempts to show or sell his work, and he sold just two paintings.[6][7]

Typically, he would do his preliminary sketches unobserved just under the table top, while sitting having a pint in the pub, before assembling these into finished paintings at home.[8]

His work came to public attention following his death in 2018, when he left behind a hoard of more than 500 paintings, and thousands of drawings, in his council house in Warrington.[9] Visitors queued around the block to see a two-day exhibition at Tucker's house.[10][11] Following this, a 2019 retrospective at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, titled Eric Tucker: The Unseen Artist, attracted record numbers of visitors to the gallery.[12] In July 2021, two London art galleries – Connaught Brown and Alon Zakaim – exhibited 40 oil paintings and watercolours by him.[7]

Tucker was influenced by artists including Edward Burra, Edgar Degas, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.[7]

Critics have compared Tucker to Burra, Lowry, James Ensor, Julian Trevelyan, and Eric Ravilious.[11][13] Art critic Ruth Millington described Tucker's work as a 'significant contribution to modern British art'.[6]

The Secret Painter — a biography about Tucker, his life, paintings, and legacy — was written by his nephew Joe Tucker after his uncle's death.[14] This biography was abridged into five episodes read by Paul Ready for the BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week series and broadcast over five days from 7 July 2025.[15]

Further reading

  • Joe Tucker – The Secret Painter Edinburgh: Canongate, 2025 ISBN 9781837261574

References

  1. ^ Tucker, Joe (2025). The Secret Painter. Canongate, Edinburgh. ISBN 978-1837261574.
  2. ^ Reporters, Telegraph (23 November 2019). "On show at last: Eric Tucker, the Secret Lowry of Warrington". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  3. ^ Tucker, Joe (2025). The Secret Painter. Canongate, Edinburgh. ISBN 978-1837261574.
  4. ^ Tucker, Joe (2025). The Secret Painter. Canongate, Edinburgh. ISBN 978-1837261574.
  5. ^ Retter, Emily (16 December 2019). "Lost paintings of shunned labourer on £3-a-week could now sell for millions". mirror. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  6. ^ a b Reporters, Telegraph (23 November 2019). "On show at last: Eric Tucker, the Secret Lowry of Warrington". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  7. ^ a b c Gascoigne, Laura (10 July 2021). "The magical art of boxer, labourer & sometime gravedigger Eric Tucker | The Spectator". www.spectator.co.uk. Retrieved 29 July 2021.
  8. ^ Tucker, Joe (2025). The Secret Painter. Canongate, Edinburgh. ISBN 978-1837261574.
  9. ^ Cowan, Katy (17 March 2020). "Eric Tucker: The hidden 'Lowry of Warrington' who spent decades painting in secret". Creative Boom. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  10. ^ Langfitt, Frank (22 February 2020). "'Unseen Artist' Eric Tucker Spent Decades Painting — But Nobody Knew". NPR.org. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  11. ^ a b Youngs, Ian (23 November 2019). "The 'unseen' artist who is getting his final wish". BBC News. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  12. ^ Morgan, David (21 February 2020). "Last chance to see Eric Tucker exhibition at Warrington Museum". Warrington Guardian. Retrieved 22 March 2020.
  13. ^ Barrie, Josh (25 October 2018). "Breathtaking collection of art found in builder's terraced house". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 22 March 2020.Updated 14 October 2020.
  14. ^ "Review: Joe Eric Tucker, The Secret Painter". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 February 2025.
  15. ^ BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week [1]


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