Title: Natal from the sea
Medium: Watercolour
Date: 1845
Unframed: 17cm x 24cm
Framed: 56cm x 62cm
Bowler was a recorder of events and scenes at the Cape and in Natal for the 35 years he lived in South Africa. The earliest of the Bowler prints dates from 1842, when the lithograph of H.M.S. Southampton covering the landing of the 27th Regiment off Port Natal was published. There is no record of him visiting Natal in 1842, but he did travel to Natal in August 1845 and in October of that same year. After these trips he advertised the publication of five views of Natal, to be dedicated to the Cape Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir Peregrine Maitland (Ancestors South Africa 2019:1). The painting, Natal from the sea, was a painting produced by Bowler on one of these two journeys in 1945.
