Army barracks
1942

• Albert TUCKER

A number of paintings by Albert Tucker were re-framed prior to exhibition in 2011. The paintings in question were painted during or immediately after World War II. During this time, framing materials were scarce and the selection of mouldings available probably dated to the 1920’s or earlier. Tucker was known to be a competent woodworker and he may have made some of his own frames from available materials such as scrap wood, canvas and second-hand, or new, joinery materials. That he changed frames, added painted decoration and also modified the paintings within them is documented. Some frames had ornamented surfaces while others were probably recycled ‘Edwardian’ mouldings of simple flat or compound-mitred styles with a coat of paint. Albert Tucker's paintings were seen in a wide variety of basically ‘modern’ frames typical of the time the were painted and contrary to the classical collectors frames, although in many cases the difference was only in the surface treatment, the basic mouldings being similar.
Army Barracks, from 1942, was acquired in 1992 with a frame dating somewhere from the 1970’s to the time of acquisition.
It was re-framed in 2011 with a dark stained wooden moulding taken from a 1940’s frame.