‘Secret Lowry’ who left house full of unseen art

Eric Tucker hid his life’s work in his home for decades

A man, dubbed the “Secret Lowry,” left a house full of unseen artwork that is set to sell for £1m in total sales. Boxer and building labourer Eric Tucker, from Warrington, hid his life’s work depicting northern working-class settings in his end-terrace home for years.

His artwork, which has been compared to LS Lowry, was only discovered after his death. And even his family had no idea of his talent.

Eric died in July 2018 at the age of 86, and his family later uncovered nearly 500 exceptional paintings and sketches piled in his house. A number were also hidden for safekeeping in compostable bags in an old air raid shelter in the garden, Cheshire Live reports.

At two previous Mayfair exhibitions, the family sold a number of his pieces for over £750,000. A third exhibition started last Friday, May 2, revealing some of the pieces of art that have never previously been showcased.

The exhibition will continue until Friday, May 30. It is estimated that sales from the exhibition will take the total amount the paintings have sold for to around the £1 million mark.

Eric’s nephew, Joe Tucker, 43, has written a book about his uncle, The Secret Painter, in which he dives into the unassuming manner in which the art was revealed by Eric’s brother (Joe’s father), Tony Tucker, 83. Joe, a scriptwriter from Warrington, said: “It was very much his style to be almost chronically modest and unforthcoming with his talent.

“We knew that he liked to paint because he lived with my grandparents and never left home, and he liked to use their front room as a sort of painting room. And he made a comment to my dad, when he knew his life was coming to an end, that he would’ve loved to have had an exhibition in the local museum and gallery.

“My dad kind of thought, ‘Well, Eric, you could have mentioned this in the 84 and a half years prior’, but then he started to catalogue the paintings. He saw it at first as a task that needed to be done, but eventually he saw the astonishing quantity and quality of the work – he was so overwhelmed by it.

“In the end, I think we counted nearly 500 paintings in the house, not including innumerable drawers full of his drawings.” The self-effacing style led to his nickname the Secret Lowry and an international art world frenzy, with thousands heading from across the country to his home on King George Crescent in Warrington to view his artwork over two days in October 2018.

An exhibition at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery from November 2019 to February 2020 soon followed. Between July and August 2021, a joint Mayfair exhibition across Alon Zakaim Fine Art Gallery and Connaught Brown Fine Art Gallery took place and became the fastest selling in either gallery’s history – completely selling out in the first 48 hours.

An almost equally successful second Mayfair exhibition in these two galleries was held in December 2022. On the nickname, Joe said: “I don’t really know how influenced by Lowry he was really – but the comparison is kind of obvious given what he painted.

“I know that his favourite painter was an artist called Edward Borough, but I think he’d be very, very amused by it really. It’s hard to imagine him expressing too much about it, but I think he’d certainly feel some pride that his work has been recognised, but maybe also a bit of embarrassment.

“One of the things I was fascinated by writing the book was how he discovered art. Eric’s parents weren’t into art, there weren’t any art books in the house, they didn’t take him to galleries, and he wasn’t part of any local art group.

“It was absolutely something he found himself and pursued in a very solitary way. And that kind of withdrawn and unforthcoming nature has led to a mystique around it.

“He never even spoke to family about it, and I look at some of the pieces, and I can only speculate about why he decided to paint that or what he was thinking, which lends itself to a bit of mystery.” But Joe does recall his uncle providing at least some inspiration for his work.

He said: “I remember him telling me the greatest song ever written was Dirty Old Town by Ewan MacColl, which sums up his life. Eric was absolutely of that world.

“With this third and quite likely final exhibition in Mayfair, we want to sell the work as an act of preservation, as people will look after the paintings, but also to generate money for a trust to establish a legacy for him and his work.”

Joe’s biography and memoir of Eric and his life, The Secret Painter, was released in January 2025.