Title: British regiment and settlers approaching bushman
Medium: Watercolour
Unframed: 30.1cm x 49.8cm
Framed: 70cm x 88cm
Thomas Bowler was a self-taught English picturesque water-colourist, and according to Pama (1977:4) because of him “we know more (pictorially) of this period than any other previous Cape period; if we take only original work into account this holds also for any after him. He is the Cape painter of the middle of the nineteenth century par excellence.”
During the 35 years he lived in Cape Town he often travelled to the interior of South Africa. In the early part of 1858 Bowler visited the eastern districts and Kaffraria (the Eastern Cape), repeating this journey in December 1861 — January 1862, when he sketched the views forming the basis for his celebrated series, The Kafir wars and the British settlers in South Africa (Ancestors South Africa 2019:1).
