The Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art received what a spokesman is calling a “momentous and culturally significant” Christmas present in the form of a major collection of works by one of the Island’s most acclaimed contemporary painters.

The Botanical Gardens gallery has been gifted 40 paintings by Bermudian artist Bruce Stuart, most of them depicting Bermuda’s architectural heritage.

“We were fortunate enough to have been given these works by a patron who prefers to remain anonymous,” the museum spokesman said. “He had lovingly put the collection together over the last three decades.

“He wanted to ensure the paintings remained together as a testament to Bruce Stuart’s talent as well as a record of the unique architecture of Bermuda — some of which has already been lost to the ravages of time, the elements and man since these works were painted.”

Mr Stuart, 55, remains one of Bermuda’s best-known modern artists.

A former president of the Bermuda Society of Arts, the Island’s built heritage was the primary focus of his acrylic paintings from the time he began exhibiting in the early 1980s until 2006 when he moved to Mexico with his wife, Claudia.

He took part in dozens of exhibits locally and one of his murals can be seen at LF Wade International Airport’s arrivals hall. Mr Stuart now runs an art gallery out of his home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico — Stuart Fine Art Studio.

“As accomplished as he is popular, Bruce Stuart has been one of the major artistic exponents of Bermuda-themed artwork in recent decades,” the Masterworks spokesman said.

“His first exhibition at Susan ‘Sudie’ Curtis’s old Windjammer Gallery in Hamilton — which also, coincidentally, featured work by Masterworks founder Tom Butterfield — was a huge success with the lines snaking out the doors onto Reid Street.

“All of his paintings had sold within a couple of minutes of the exhibit opening. This was understandable as his paintings are beautifully executed realist studies of houses and buildings across the Island which appeal every bit as much to the emotions as to the eye.”

All 40 of the donated works will be on display commencing Saturday, January 23, at the Paget gallery.