Art

Art in Bermuda has never reached the status enjoyed by such islands as Haiti and Jamaica. A critic once wrote that "Bermuda is the perfect place for the Sunday painter." Some serious art, however, is displayed at such places as the Masterworks Foundation Gallery at Bermuda House in the City of Hamilton. Still, a great deal of Bermuda art is of the watercolor variety, with idyllic landscapes and seascapes sold at various shops around the island.

Bermuda's earliest works of art were portraits painted by itinerant artists for the local gentry. Most of these were by the English-born Joseph Blackburn, whose brief visit to Bermuda in the mid-1700s led to requests by local landowners to have their portraits painted. Many of these portraits can be found today in the Tucker House Museum in St. George's. A handful of portraits from the same period were done by the American-born artist John Green. Also prized are a series of paintings from the mid-19th century depicting sailing ships; they're signed "Edward James," but the artist's real identity remains unknown.

During the 19th century, the traditions of the English landscape painters, particularly the Romantics, came into vogue in Bermuda. Constable, with his lush and evocative landscapes, became the model for many. Other than a few amateur artists, however, whose works showed great vitality but little sense of perspective, most of Bermuda's landscape paintings were executed by British military officers and their wives. Their body of work includes a blend of true-to-life landscapes with an occasional stylized rendering of the picturesque or Romantic tradition then in vogue in England. Among the most famous of the uniformed artists was Lt. E. G. Hallewell, a member of the Royal Engineers, whose illustrations of the island's topography were used for planning certain naval installations.

Another celebrated landscapist was Thomas Driver, who arrived as a member of the Royal Engineers in 1814 and remained on the island until 1836. Trained to reproduce detailed landscape observations as a means of assisting military and naval strategists, he later modified his style to become more elegant and evocative. He soon abandoned the military and became a full-time painter of Bermuda scenes. Because of Driver's attention to detail, his works are frequently reproduced by scholars and art historians who hope to recapture the aesthetic and architectural elements of the island's earliest buildings.

Later in the 19th century, other artists depicted the flora of Bermuda. Lady Lefroy, whose husband was governor of the island between 1871 and 1877, painted the trees, shrubs, fish, flowers, and animals of the island in much detail. Later, at scattered intervals during their careers, such internationally known artists as Winslow Homer, Andrew Wyeth, George Ault, and French-born Impressionist and cubist Albert Gleizes all painted Bermudian scenes.

Today, Bermuda has more artists painting and creating than at any point in its history. Among prominent Bermuda-born artists was Alfred Birdsey, who died in 1996. His watercolors represented some of the most elegiac visual odes to Bermuda ever produced. Birdsey's paintings, as well as those of other artists mentioned above, are on display in galleries around the island. Other local favorites include Eric Amos; his illustrations of Bermuda's wild birds are sought by collectors all over the world. Captain Stephen J. Card has developed an international reputation by specializing in marine art. Vivienne Gardner is known not just for her paintings but for her sculpture, stained glass, and mosaics as well. Christine Phillips-Watlington has achieved an international reputation for her botanical paintings.

Protecting artworks from climate damage is a constant problem on the island. As the administrator of one major art gallery explained, "Bermuda's climate is unquestionably the worst in the world for the toll it takes on works of art, with three elements -- humidity, salt, and ultraviolet light -- all playing their part." Some very valuable Bermudian paintings have been totally destroyed. As a result, more and more galleries and exhibition rooms on the island have installed air-conditioning.

In addition to its painters, Bermuda also boasts several noted sculptors, including Chelsey Trott, who produces cedar-wood carvings, and Desmond Hale Fountain, who creates works in bronze. Fountain's life-size statues often show children in the act of reading or snoozing in the shade.