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Formally trained in fine art at Mt. Allison University, Robert Barritt exhibited frequently in Bermuda during the 1950s and 1960s. He ventured beneath Bermuda’s postcard-perfect surface, where few Bermudians, and even fewer of his white contemporaries dared go, tackling issues of poverty and social injustice.

In “Two Weeks Before Christmas and Government House,” one of Barritt’s two works in the Bermuda National Gallery’s permanent collection, an innocent activity points to class and racial divide.

The painting depicts the Pembroke Dump back of the city of Hamilton, whose nearby residents were nearly all black; Barritt encountered a group of boys gathering oranges from a crate and was inspired to sketch, later noting: “The fact that it was before Christmas and Government House was in the background, I thought that made a statement.”

18″ x 24″