The Masterworks Foundation has acquired a new piece by Precisionist painter George Ault, who visited the Island in 1922.

The work ?Bermuda Park? will now be paired in the Foundation?s collection with a pencil sketch of the eventual work which the Foundation has had for decades.

The painting and sketch depict the site of the monument where the heart of one of Bermuda?s first settlers, Sir George Somers, was buried in Somers Garden in St. George?s.

Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art director Tom Butterfield said the acquisition comes just in time for the opening of the Foundation?s new Museum building, expected next year.

?I am thrilled with the acquisition of this work because it marries a pencil drawing that we acquired at the very beginning, some 20 years ago when we started the Masterworks Foundation,? he said.

?So the complete work is now reunited with the sketch. This offers Masterworks patrons the rare opportunity to appreciate the evolution of a Precisionist painting.?

Mr. Butterfield said Ault spent most of his career working in New York after completing his artistic training in London.

?Along with Charles Demuth, Charles Sheeler and Georgia O?Keeffe, he is considered one of the premier examples of the Precisionist style,? he added.

?Like Demuth and Marsden Hartley before him, Ault paid a visit to Bermuda in 1922.?

Helen Cooper, Holcombe T. Green curator of American Paintings and Sculpture, was quoted as saying of Ault: ?In ?Bermuda Park?, under brilliant blue Bermuda sky, the geometric forms of the white buildings dazzle against the lush rounded forms of the trees and bushes.

?There is a freshness of execution and an underlying commitment to the subject, revealing how directly the artist was responding to the beauty of the scene before him.?

It is clear from this painting that Bermuda had a profound effect on the work the artist created while on the Island, Mr. Butterfield said, because it marked a departure in his style.

?Ault typically painted his New York scenes in muted tones of browns, greys and reds,? he said.

?However, when confronted with the stark white of the Bermudian roofs, the brilliant blue skies and the verdant landscape, Ault couldn?t help but abide, creating unique work for this period in his development.

?The artist must have been particularly pleased with ?Bermuda Park? because upon his return to the US he chose to submit it to the 1923 Salon of America.?

The Masterworks director said ?a very generous benefactor? had stepped in to help the Foundation in its ongoing search for consummate treasurers of the Island.

?Bermuda Park? will be on display along with the rest of the Bermudiana Collection at the Masterworks Museum rmuda Art in the fall of 2007.