A GLIMPSE of old Bermuda has been gifted to the Masterworks Foundation in the form of an original oil painting and sketch of a popular watering hole in the 1940s.

The Bar at the Twenty One Club was painted by an American artist and frequent visitor to the island at the time, Reynolds Beal, well known for his impressionist landscapes and seascapes.

According to the Foundation's assistant director Elise Outerbridge, the actual bar - which overlooked Hamilton Harbour - was well known as a regular meeting spot for locals and tourists.

"Reynolds Beal sailed to the island on a number of occasions and, in 1940, did a sketch and a painting of the interior of the Bar at the Twenty One Club, where the Pickled Onion is now," she said. "It was a popular watering spot back then and (the images) show a slice of Bermudian life right before the war."

The Bar at the Twenty One Club isn't the first of Mr. Beal's works to join the Masterworks collection.

"We have about 35 of his sketches, all of which are great vignettes of Bermuda circa 1939/1940," said Foundation director Tom Butterfield, "but this is the first oil painting of his that we have.

"It's so seldom that we see interiors. They're always very interesting and (what we've been given) is genuinely a unique image in terms of subject matter." The pieces of art, he said, were donated to Masterworks in the last month by an American collector, Robert Ryneweld.

"He was notified by a friend of our efforts to repatriate artwork. It will be a great addition to our new home (at the Arrowroot Factory in the Botanical Gardens)."

Added Mrs. Outerbridge: "This is a great example of how there are still fine Bermuda pieces out there. They keep appearing and we are still actively collecting. We're not all-embracing, but we have a wish-list of artists that have eluded us. We're still looking for pieces of artwork to fit in our collection. They all piece together a picture of Bermuda's culture that one can't capture through literature."