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Mr Driver meets Dr Savage

Dr Edward Harris
Updated: Apr 12, 2014 08:01 AM
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Sugarloaf Hill, at the junction of the main road to St George’s and that to Ferry Point, was a favourite spot for painters, including Thomas Driver and Johnson Savage. On the left is Driver’s view of Mullett Bay and beyond in 1814, while Dr Savage’s of twenty years later is in the centre. To contrast those images, perhaps the earliest aerial photograph of the area from the early 1920s is on the right.

In the small world that was Bermuda of the mid-1830s, we can presume that the two consummate artists then resident here, Mr Thomas Driver and Dr Johnson Savage, would have met one another and possibly even painted together.

History, that is to say of documents and texts, does not record any such meetings or artistic jamborees, but we have been left with paintings of both men made from similar vantage points at the east end of Bermuda, in St George’s Parish, although at different dates.

Several are presented here for your edification and amusement, that is to write in the vein of the latter word in its original sense as “a musing, a diversion of attention”.

So this article is to divert your attention from the trials and tribulations of this day and focus your attention on some views of Bermuda in the time of our forebears 180-plus years ago, as illustrated by the contrasting paintings of Messrs Driver and Savage, even if one may have been a driven character and the other not of a personality as suggested by his surname.

Without further ado, however, we must acknowledge (with considerable gratitude on behalf of all Bermudians and residents) that today’s journey would not have been possible without the magnificent collection of images of Bermuda amassed over many years by Fay and Geoffrey Elliott and the recent, most generous gift to the National Museum of the paintings of Dr Savage by Peter, Jenifer and William, Savages all, being three of his great great grandchildren.

Among the Fay and Geoffrey Elliott Collection at the Bermuda Archives is the largest known group of Driver images, ranging from 1814 to 1836, while the 39 Savage paintings are all contained in one album, being “Sketches made on the Spot, 1833—36”.

According to a biographical article by Fay Elliott, Driver arrived on the island in June 1814, painting his first known image in December of that year from Sugarloaf Hill, presented here.

Dr Savage’s image from Sugarloaf is from 1833—36 and it is possible that Driver may have shown him his 1814 painting and recommended the view at the western end of Mullett Bay.

Each artist has a darkened foreground, but while Driver’s ranges farther to the west, Savage’s illustration is more precise: both are contrasted here to the first known aerial photograph of Mullett Bay, likely taken by Peter Dowle in the early 1920s.

Mr Driver may have also suggested the vista on the north side of St David’s Island, where he executed a painting in

“Octo: 1815”.

From that spot, the central figure in the paintings is the original channel into St George’s Harbour from the open sea.

While twenty years apart, the paintings capture a similar scene that cannot be obtained today, unless one was able to have a rooftop perch from which to paint, the many buildings on St David’s obscuring the view of Driver and Savage’s time.

Lastly here are two panoramas of the World Heritage St George’s painted from the hills to the east of the town.

Both illustrations are a wonderful record of the layout of the town, Driver’s from 1824 and Savage’s from a decade later.

Both will provide research data on the development of St George’s for architectural historians and archaeologists for decades to come.

Thus while the paintings are artwork of a fine calibre, they are also historical documents of the first rank, for which we should be forever grateful that they have survived down the last two centuries.

The artists both left Bermuda in 1836 and one would like to think that they were on the same vessel, bound for Britain, the London Packet, a Bermuda-built brig.

Dr Savage would continue onto other overseas commitments with the Royal Artillery and to raise a family of three boys and a girl.

One wonders what drove Mr Driver to leave behind his daughters, eight-year-old Althea Frances and 16-year old Emma; perhaps he intended to return, but never did: not a little heartbreak there all round perhaps.

The eldest son of Althea was christened Thomas Driver Musson and his descendants in Elizabeth Kawaley (my neighbour and fellow writer), and her son, the present Chief Justice of Bermuda, and others, are with us today.

Edward Cecil Harris, MBE, JP, PHD, FSA is Director of the National Museum. Comments may be made to director@nmb.bm or 704-5480.

Another favourite locale for painting was on a hill on the northeast side of St David’s Island, looking over St George’s Channel, the original one from the open sea into the harbour of the town, with its guardians of Smith’s Fort and Fort Cunningham. The upper view is a Driver of 1815 and the lower is by Dr Savage some twenty years later.
To capture the Town of St George’s, both Driver (upper image) and Savage (lower picture) ascended to the high ground to the east of the town and settled down with their easel, paper and paints. Driver’s beautiful image shows that many of the buildings were “whitewashed” in yellow ochre, a feature that also appears in the Savage picture, which is from a slightly different angle — both provide wonderful data for the architectural history of the town.
Thomas Driver left Bermuda on the London Packet in May 1836, perhaps for a short visit to the country of his birth. Dr Savage also left the Island in 1836, but neither man ever returned, though their paintings have.