Lot Essay
Driver arrived in Bermuda in 1814, probably with the Royal Engineers, and his earliest topographical drawings of Bermuda date to 1815. A handful of earlier works have been traced: three watercolours ('Capture of Martinique') from 1809-11 and a group of drawings of scenes in Spain and the Spanish/French border which probably relate to the Peninsula campaign. His first views in Bermuda include romantic pictures of the caves in Tucker's Town (see Sotheby's, 4 November 1987, lots 295 and 298) and topographical works which suggest he was a military draughtsman. By 1816 he was advertising his services as an auctioneer and he formed a partnership with John Munson, a local merchant, in 1817. The firm continued until 1821 when Driver began to advertise himself as a painter of portraits in oil and miniature. The only other oil known to have survived is a portrait of Richard Darrell, Mayor of Hamilton, now in the Bermuda Historical Society Museum at Par-La-Ville. A handful of watercolours survive in collections in Bermuda including two panoramic views of St. George's Harbour now in the Bermuda Archives. The Archives also preserve the only known complete set of his seven lithographs of Bermuda scenes from the 1820s. Driver returned to England in 1836 and died in Camberwell, London in 1852.
Driver appears to have been the most significant artist at work in Bermuda before 1850 and the only artist whose works have survived in some number. John Adams, Bermuda Government Archivist, recorded other, mostly amateur, artists such as Capt. John Browne, J.C.S. Green and Hon. Maria Lewis as active in the same period but that little of their work remains (in the exhibition The First Drawings and Watercolours of Bermuda, Bermuda National Gallery, April-July 1992). The only other artist of comparable stature is Lieut. E.G. Hallewell of the Royal Engineers whose 'Views of Bermuda' were reproduced in a series of lithographs in 1848.
For an outline of Thomas Driver's activities in Bermuda, see J. Adams, The Shadowy Figure of Thomas Driver, The Bermudian, December 1991, pp. 24-5. We are grateful to Fay Elliott for additional information on the artist
Driver appears to have been the most significant artist at work in Bermuda before 1850 and the only artist whose works have survived in some number. John Adams, Bermuda Government Archivist, recorded other, mostly amateur, artists such as Capt. John Browne, J.C.S. Green and Hon. Maria Lewis as active in the same period but that little of their work remains (in the exhibition The First Drawings and Watercolours of Bermuda, Bermuda National Gallery, April-July 1992). The only other artist of comparable stature is Lieut. E.G. Hallewell of the Royal Engineers whose 'Views of Bermuda' were reproduced in a series of lithographs in 1848.
For an outline of Thomas Driver's activities in Bermuda, see J. Adams, The Shadowy Figure of Thomas Driver, The Bermudian, December 1991, pp. 24-5. We are grateful to Fay Elliott for additional information on the artist