Eric Tucker (1932–2018) was an English painter and draughtsman. He is best known for his depictions of working class social life in industrial North West England. The media have often described Tucker as the "secret Lowry". He received no formal art education and left school at 14, working variously as a boxer, a steelworker, a gravedigger and a building labourer. Unknown during his lifetime, he made very few attempts to sell or show his work. Few beyond close family were aware that he painted. In his lifetime Tucker sold just two paintings. His work came to public attention following his death in 2018, when he left behind a hoard of more than 400 paintings, and thousands of drawings, in his house in

Warrington Warrington () is a town and unparished area in the borough of the same name in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Mersey. It is east of Liverpool, and west of Manchester. The population in 2019 was estimat ...

. Visitors queued around the block to see a two-day exhibition at Tucker's house. Following this, a 2019 retrospective at

Warrington Museum & Art Gallery Warrington Museum & Art Gallery is on Bold Street in the Cultural Quarter of Warrington in a Grade II listed building that it shares with the town's Central Library. The Museum and the Library originally opened in 1848 as the first rate-sup ...

, titled Eric Tucker: The Unseen Artist, attracted record numbers of visitors to the gallery. In July 2021 two London art galleries Connaught Brown and Alon Zakaim exhibited 40 oils and watercolours. Tucker was influenced by artists including

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...

Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the l ...

and

Edward Burra Edward John Burra CBE (29 March 1905 – 22 October 1976) was an English painter, draughtsman, and printmaker, best known for his depictions of the urban underworld, black culture and the Harlem scene of the 1930s. Biography Early life Burra ...

. Critics have compared Tucker to

L. S. Lowry Laurence Stephen Lowry ( ; 1 November 1887 – 23 February 1976) was an English artist. His drawings and paintings mainly depict Pendlebury, Lancashire (where he lived and worked for more than 40 years) as well as Salford and its vicinity ...

James Ensor James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic g ...

Julian Trevelyan Julian Otto Trevelyan (20 February 1910 – 12 July 1988) was an English artist and poet. Early life Trevelyan was the only child to survive to adulthood of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and his wife Elizabeth van der Hoeven. His grandfather wa ...

and

Eric Ravilious Eric William Ravilious (22 July 1903 – 2 September 1942) was a British painter, designer, book illustrator and wood-engraver. He grew up in Sussex, and is particularly known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English landsc ...

. Art critic Ruth Millington described Tucker's work as a 'significant contribution to modern British art'.

References

20th-century English painters People from North West England 1932 births 2018 deaths British draughtsmen {{England-painter-stub