Get real …
Until recently, James Walker Tucker’s paintings had been consigned to the back of art history’s storeroom. Like other long-overlooked British artists from the interwar years, he eschewed avant-garde experimentation for a stylised realism that was once hugely popular.
Signs of the times …
In 1936’s Hikers, the formalised figures, their hair and modern get-up are familiar from 1930s poster art promoting seaside breaks and train rides, with smooth colours and sharp edges.
The great outdoors …
The sun-kissed outdoorsiness is just as much a product of the time. After the first world war and the economic hardship that followed, people bought into physical health and nature’s beauty.
Land girls …
What’s striking about this painting is that the capable-looking trio are a far cry from those traditionally associated with the landscape, be that the Romantic poets who popularised climbing hills for fun or rustic workers. They’re a new generation of young women whose mothers had seen their worlds expand within the war effort.
Included in The Lie of the Land, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, to 26 May
