Albert Tucker is one of the most important Australian artists of last century who helped shape the direction of Australian painting in the 1940s and for the rest of the twentieth century. Ruth, 1946 is a major work, part of a series of portraits produced between 1945 and 1947 which are considered by Geoffrey Smith, art writer and historian and former senior curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, to be ‘parallel to his renowned Images of Modern Evil’ (most of which are in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia). Tucker has painted the sitter, Ruth Greenwald (the wife of a friend of the artist) with strong, vigorous strokes which relate this painting to Tucker's most well-known portrait of Mrs Greenwald, Ruth, 1945, also in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. Still in its original condition and original 1940s frame, we are extremely fortunate to have this very special painting in the gallery.

Albert Tucker is represented in the National Gallery of Australia, all state galleries, many regional galleries as well as other important public collections both in Australia and internationally.