Albert Lee Tucker a pivotal Australian artist, was a member of the Heide Circle

Heide Circle

The Heide Circle was a loose grouping of Australian artists who lived and worked at "Heide", a former dairy farm on the Yarra River floodplain at Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, counting amongst their number many of Australia's best-known modernist painters....

, a group of leading modernist artists and writers that centred on the art patrons John

John Reed (art patron)

John Reed was an Australian art editor and patron, notable for supporting and collecting of Australian art and culture with his wife Sunday Reed....

 and Sunday Reed

Sunday Reed

Sunday Reed was notable for supporting and collecting Australian art with her husband John Reed.-Personal history:...

, whose home, "Heide", located in Bulleen, near Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

 (outside Melbourne

Melbourne

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...

), was a haven for the group. Tucker's major series Images of modern evil (1943–47) depicted prostitutes and soldiers in Melbourne.
Tucker loathed school and willingly left at 14 and became a commercial artist.