PEOPLE in Cornwall are being asked to help pinpoint the exact location shown in two works of art by “the Secret Painter” which are currently on display in London.

The paintings by Eric Tucker, one in oil and the other a watercolour, depict the Clay Country near St Austell.

Eric, who died in 2018, left behind a treasure trove of his artwork at his former council house in Warrington, Cheshire.

Since then, his work has become much celebrated for its authentic representation of working-class life.

During his working life, Eric would travel around the country delivering building materials to sites. He always carried scraps of paper and pencils in the pockets of his donkey jacket, ready for the muse to strike.

Eric, the subject of the recently-published biography The Secret Painter, was “tight-lipped” and “highly unforthcoming” about his art, according to his nephew Joe Tucker. A diffident and self-effacing man, he never married but shared a house with his mother and stepfather in which he quietly produced all his paintings.

Even close family had no idea of the scale of his output until the very end of his life.

Now Eric’s two paintings from Cornwall, entitled Figures in a Landscape, are being shown in public for the first time at the Connaught Brown gallery in London and his relatives are asking for the help of people in the county to identify the location of the works.

Anthony Brown, from the gallery, said: “Figures in a Landscape, oil and watercolour versions, give two different variations of the same Cornish landscape. In both, Tucker is clearly paying homage to the artist he most admired, Edward Burra, in the figures that are laid on top of each other and blend into the landscape.”

Anyone who recognises the exact location of the works is asked to email [email protected]