Title: Panoramic view of Wynberg and False Bay
Medium: Pencil heightened with white on buff paper – 7 sheets of paper joined
Unframed: 26cm x 109cm
Framed: 80cm x 180cm
In 1852 Bowler was living with his family in Wynberg. At the time he was teaching at the South African College in town, and the Diocesan College in Rondebosch while still giving private art lessons to the upper crust of Cape Town (Pama 1977:19-22).
Art lessons at the time consisted of copying lithographs by various masters and drawings by the teacher. The teacher also had to touch up the pupils’ various water-colours so that they can be admired by family (Pama 1977:21).
In 1854 mainly for health reasons, Bowler returned to England. During this one year stay he took water painting and drawing lessons from J.D. Harding. Harding impressed on Bowler the principle of learning to draw from nature, instead of just copying work by other artists.
On his return to South Africa, he introduced the system of J. D. Harding and put together a student’s handbook that was a condensation of Harding’s Lessons on trees and elementary art. Some of the most competent artists found in the Cape were his pupils, for example: Abraham de Smidt and Daniel Krynauw (Ancestors South Africa 2019:1).
