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The Bermuda Collection

Celebrating Bermuda’s Beauty

The David L. White Collection

As we slowly emerge from 4 weeks of shelter in place, and restrictions placed on access to our beaches and nature reserves are lifted, the beauty of our island home shines like never before.

Simples pleasures such as walking the trails or dipping a few tentative toes into the ocean take on a new significance. To celebrate this renewed respect for our natural habitat and to mark the start of Heritage Month, we shine a light on the David L. White Collection, a key component of the BNG’s Bermuda’s Collection.

The collection, which celebrates Bermuda’s beauty seen through the eyes the American Impressionists, marks one of the most significant gifts to Bermuda’s cultural heritage. The seventy seven artworks were generously donated to the Bermuda National Gallery by David L. White, OBE, Chairman Emeritus and Trustee, who described himself as “a temporary caretaker of these Bermuda treasures”.

He said at the time of the gift: “Throughout the last twenty-five years of collecting, I have never thought of these works as belonging to me. I have always known that at some time they would have to be available to all Bermudians”.

Representing Bermuda’s history and celebrating her natural beauty, the collection provides a glimpse into life on the island in a quieter time and reminds us both how much and yet how little has changed.

South Shore by Francis Dixon, 1925. Oil on board. 8 x 9 ½ inches. Bermuda National Gallery permanent collection.
East End of Elbow Beach by William Chadwick, c.1922. Oil on canvas. 20 x 24 inches. Bermuda National Gallery permanent collection.
Springfield, Somerset, by William Howe Foote, c. 1922. Oil on board. 7 x 8 ½ inches. Bermuda National Gallery permanent collection.
Hamilton Harbour by Edmund W. Greacen, 1931. Oil on canvas. 8 x 9 inches. Bermuda National Gallery permanent collection.
Bermuda House, St George’s by Rupert Lovejoy, c.1925. Oil on board. 14 x 16 inches. Bermuda National Gallery Permanent Collection.

These images and more are published in Cross Currents: Impressions of Bermuda which celebrates the David L. White Collection. The book is available to purchase for $30 from the Bermuda National Gallery.