LIFERobert Rucker was born in 1932 and grew up in Depression-era New Orleans. When he was a teenager, he and his mother opened a gallery in the French Quarter, beginning his long and prolific art career. After he contracted polio, the Louisiana Department of Education paid for his education at to the John McCrady School of Fine Arts. He completed his studies, then taught in his own studio and for the New Orleans Recreation Department, and worked at Tulane University as a textile designer and medical artist. Rucker died in 2001, leaving behind a legacy as one of Louisiana’s foremost painters. ARTRucker works in a romantic style that merges realism and impressionism, often in oil paint with pastel tones. He carries on the tradition of the Louisiana landscapes created in the 1800s by painters like Richard Clague and Marshall J. Smith. Rucker paints dreamlike, iconic glimpses of historical Louisiana. He is famous for his landscapes as well as many depictions of steamboats (his father and grandfathers were steamboat captains). RECOGNITIONLouisiana Legends Award - 1996One-man shows in New Orleans at the Isaac Delgado Museum of Art, Royal Orleans Hotel, Louisiana National Guard Convention and Trial Lawyer ConventionWork shown at Baton Rouge at Louisiana State University's Library, Gerard Ruth's Gallery, and galleries in St. Louis, Chicago and San Francisco Sources:AskArtArtnet.comGilley’s Gallery