The secret Lowry
On show at last, unknown artist who left hoard of 400 works
His only training with a paintbrush was a signwriting apprenticeship in his youth.
But Eric Tucker had a lifelong passion for art. sitting at his favourite table in his local pub, he would sketch fellow drinkers on scraps of paper.
Once he returned to the end-ofterrace house where he lived alone, he got out his easel and used the sketches to create scenes of working-class life.
As he would not sell his works, and refused most offers to exhibit them, the retired builder’s talents went unrecognised in his lifetime.
Worsening arthritis forced him to pack away his brushes and only after his death in July at the age of 86 did his family realise the scale of his talent.
They were stunned to find almost 400 oil paintings and watercolours stacked around the bachelor’s home in Warrington, Cheshire.
Evocative images of post-war life in the industrial North were piled on top of wardrobes, squeezed into the airing cupboard or hidden in the shed. influenced by his upbringing, the paintings call to mind the work of L s Lowry, the Lancashire artist famed for his ‘matchstick men’ industrial landscapes.
Mr Tucker’s art features smoky pubs, tumbledown terraced streets and factories populated by flat capwearing locals with their wives.
This weekend it will be displayed for the first time when the home on King George Crescent, where he spent most of his life, will be turned into an art gallery. The free twoday exhibition, 60 Years of Unseen Art, features 45 of his paintings.
Mr Tucker’s brother Tony, 76, said: ‘We did know Eric had a passion for art but never realised he had hoarded a huge collection. He was a very modest man and despite doing sketches in his local he appeared to everyone just to be an ordinary Joe. Painting was his life.’
in the 1990s Mr Tucker was persuaded to enter a competition and won. He did not enjoy the experience even though the painting was hung in Warrington Town Hall.
Now local galleries are contacting the family but his sister-in-law Hilary Tucker said: ‘We’re not looking to sell his paintings. What Eric would have really loved was an exhibition at a public gallery.’
Martina Murphy, cultural manager at Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, said: ‘To think that a person has been so prolifically creative over a lifetime but never shared that work is remarkable.’
‘Doing sketches in his local’