Ruth Edith Tuck OAM (22 July 1914 – 10 October 2008) was a modernist painter of South Australia, noted for joint exhibitions with her husband Mervyn Ashmore Smith (11 December 1904 – 18 March 1994), and her influence as a teacher of painting. She was related to the better-known Marie Tuck.

Ruth Tuck
"The Triple Mirror" self-portrait of Ruth Tuck
Born	Ruth Edith Tuck (1914-07-22)22 July 1914 Cowell, South Australia
Died	8 October 2008(2008-10-08) (aged 94)
Nationality	Australian
Known for	Painting
Spouse(s)	Mervyn Ashmore Smith ​ ​ (m. 1943)​

History

Ruth Tuck was born at Cowell, South Australia, a daughter of Arthur Edward Tuck (1855 – 8 April 1925) and his wife Minnie née Wallis.

She studied painting under Dorrit Black and exhibited regularly with the Royal South Australian Society of Arts and was a foundation member of the Contemporary Art Society.[1]

She met Mervyn Smith in 1943 and married him on 15 October the same year;[2] they lived in Adelaide, then Mervyn moved to Newcastle, New South Wales in 1949, where he was employed as a County Council planning officer; she joined him few years later.[3] In 1953 they returned to Adelaide, where they remained and held numerous joint exhibitions of their watercolors, both modernist in outlook with Mervyn's work being generally characterised as the more ambitious.[4]

Her written work includes biographies of Mary Packer Harris and Marie Anne Tuck for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Ruth established the Ruth Tuck Art School in 1955; it continues to this day in Burnside, South Australia. She was awarded the Order of Australia medal in 1981 for services to art.

Family

Ruth was a granddaughter of noted Baptist minister Rev. Henry Lewer Tuck (11 September 1820 – 26 August 1880), an early immigrant to South Australia, whose brother Edward Starkey Tuck (13 March 1827 – 9 August 1898) was the father of Marie Tuck (5 September 1866 – 3 September 1947). See her article for more details of the Tuck family in South Australia.

Ruth had a son Mark in 1945[5] and twin daughters Michele and Angela in 1953.[6]

For further information on the family see Tuck family.

References