October 1, 1913-January 11, 1971
Charles Lloyd Tucker was a talented pianist who made his mark as a pioneering artist.
His career as a professional artist spanned only 17 years and was cut short by his sudden death at age 57.
As the first black Bermudian to acquire formal art training, and the first art teacher at the Berkeley Institute, he held a unique status.
He was a major inspiration to a whole generation, and paved the way for black Bermudians in particular, who could only dream, before he came along, of pursuing their passion for art.
Tucker was born to a family of achievers from Shelly Bay. His father, John Tucker, was a community leader, mason and builder. He inherited his musical talents from his beloved mother, Ada, who taught him how to play the organ. Tucker, who studied the piano from the age of seven, was raised on his family’s two-acre property.
He attended school at Temperance Hall in Hamilton Parish, Mrs. Millicent Neverson’s Excelsior Secondary School, and the Berkeley Institute, where one of his teachers was future premier Sir Edward Richards.
Four years after leaving Berkeley, Tucker set out to pursue his dream of becoming a concert pianist. In December 1937, he left Bermuda for London to begin music studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Dramatic Art. He arrived in the U.K., on New Year’s Day 1938, but had to return home because of the outbreak of the Second World War the following year.
The war had created an economic boom in Bermuda as a result of an influx of Americans, civilian and military, to build and service two new U.S. bases—one in Southampton, the other in St. David’s—in support of the Allies’ effort. Jobs were plentiful.
Tucker gave music lessons, was a hotel pianist and played the organ in the Base chapel. He also was a Base steward and watchman. When the war ended in 1945, Tucker felt he was too old to resume his music studies.
He had begun to paint and to do woodcarvings by then, and was encouraged in that direction by Americans whom he befriended. Bill Wagner, who was a member of the Base dredging crew and met Tucker when he was working as a watchman on Hen Island in St. George’s, was his first art mentor.
It was through the efforts of U.S. couple Albert Rosen and his wife that he was able to get a place at the Anglo-American Art Centre in London. He began his studies in graphic arts there in 1948, but switched to the Byam Shaw School of Drawing and Painting in 1949.
Tucker had to work hard to overcome his lack of formal art training, but his diligence and dedication paid off. He won prizes for landscape and flower painting. He was also a recipient of the Ernest Jackson Memorial Prize, which awarded to an outstanding student and paid his tuition for 1952-1953, his final year.
In 1953, the year of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, he was singled out for a special honour—helping his school’s co-principal paint a commemorative mural in the Bishop of London’s private chapel at Fulham Palace.
Tucker had a larger than life personality and fit in easily at Byam Shaw, where he was the only black person and whose students, mainly female, tended to be from wealthy families. He loved the cultural attractions of London, with its many museums and galleries. He roamed city parks, sketchbook in hand. For a time he roomed with future Barbados prime minister Errol Barrow and his wife, an actress and fashion designer.
To earn extra money, he played piano in clubs and sold his own work—paintings and Christmas cards with Bermuda scenes. He took extra courses, including woodcarving, during his summer holidays and also travelled to Europe. In 1954, he studied watercolours with German painter Hans Hermann Hagedorn (1913-1998), after whom he would name his son.
In September 1953, his studies complete, his artistic horizons broadened, Tucker returned to Bermuda to establish his career. In 1954, he joined the staff of Berkeley and mounted a one-man show. He exhibited regularly after that and became an active member of the art scene. He was a founding member of the Bermuda Society of Arts, which formed in 1956, as an integrated entity.
He was a prolific artist, whose watercolours, oils and pen and ink sketches had a distinctive style that his contemporaries admired. His Bermuda landscapes, street scenes and characters struck a chord both within Bermuda and beyond. He loved to paint flowers. His painting Storm in a Teacup, inspired by the 1959 Theatre Boycott—a watershed event in Bermuda—represented a rare departure into political art. While he was primarily a painter, he was also a sculptor who worked in wood and Bermuda stone.
His primary artistic influences were the French Impressionists. But his exposure to Haitian art during a 1956 trip to Haiti had a profound effect on his work.
Tucker taught at Berkeley from 1954 to 1959 and from 1963 until his death. He built a studio, Morrox, on the family property at Shelly Bay, where he worked, gave art lessons and sold paintings to locals and tourists. He travelled widely and exhibited on the US east coast and Chicago. In 1961, he embarked on a lecture tour in the Caribbean for the University of the West Indies.
Tucker was a bon vivant who enjoyed gardening, beekeeping, cooking and entertaining. His dinner parties were legendary for the food, company and music. He had a wide circle of friends, both in Bermuda and beyond, he operated at all levels of society and entertained more than one Bermuda governor at his home.
Tucker married Theresa Jackson in 1963. Although she was not an artist, she was an unwavering source of support. The couple had two children, Hans and Sarah Ann. His mother, whom he immortalised in the painting Mother, remained a part of his household after his marriage. She outlived her son but only by a few months.
Tucker’s contribution to the arts was recognized in June 1970 when he was awarded the Queen’s Certificate and Badge of Honour in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Six months later he died suddenly of a heart attack. The funeral took place at his family church, Bethel AME, where he played the organ. Hundreds turned out to pay tribute. Berkeley principal F.S. Furbert eulogized him as a man who walked with kings and queens but never lost the common touch.
Tucker’s legacy looms large. Former students who are working as artists today include Chesley Trott, Otto Trott and Elizabeth Trott (none of them related).
His paintings are sought after by private collectors and continue to be featured in art shows. His paintings were most recently exhibited at Berkeley Institute in 2006 and at Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art in 2009.
In 2002, he was a posthumous recipient of the Bermuda Arts Council ‘s Founders Award.
