Hamilton celebrates its bicentenary just as the Island enjoys the biggest art boom in its history.

For just one year ago, the opening of the Bermuda National Gallery confounded the skeptics and probably surprised even its supporters. It was an incredible achievement for such a small population.

It seems fitting that the Island's new temple of the arts should be housed within Hamilton's City Hall -- itself one of the few architectural gems of the modern city.

The enthusiasm of the City Fathers was translated into generous practical assistance with their donation of the East Wing for the new gallery. This has ensured that, amongst various other visual delights, the fascinating pictorial record of Hamilton's 200-year old growth can now be enjoyed by all.

For, this past weekend, as part of the bicentenary celebrations, a special exhibition of Hamilton's story opened at the National Gallery, with many of Bermuda's rarest drawings, paintings and photographs on display.

This exhibition underlines how fortunate this city was, from its earliest days, to have been so meticulously recorded, both by artists and photographers. Curators Mr. John Adams and Miss Karla Hayward, guardians of Bermuda's Archives, have managed to match many paintings and photographs that record how this entirely man-made city evolved.

But long before the National Gallery became a reality, and just after City Hall was completed in 1960, the Corporation, urged on by the late Sir Gilbert Cooper, had already demonstrated its commitment to the arts by setting aside the West Wing as a gallery for the Bermuda Society of Arts.

It's not often that the arts and the military are mentioned in the same breath. But it is the military and naval personnel whom we have to thank for most of the earliest depictions of Hamilton.

They employed topographically trained artists, who in the days before photography, were able to accurately record the landscape for strategic use.

Watercolours by such military artists as Lt. Hallewell and Thomas Driver, who both seem to have come here with the Royal Engineers, give us precise impressions of how Hamilton was gradually developed. They also reflected the classical and romantic ideals of the time, and the result is a series of views that are picturesque as well as authentic, sometimes peopled with figures wearing the fashions of the early 19th century, and often painted in watercolours that still look as fresh as when they were painted.

Driver, who stayed on to become a portrait painter (he is believed to have painted the portrait of Hamilton's mayor Richard Darrell which hangs in the Bermuda Historical Society at Par-la-Ville) may have inspired or even given lessons to Bermudians.

Also in the Archives are sketch books that probably belonged to officers and their families, all of whom would have been encouraged to study drawing and watercolour as part of their education.

It would seem that until the arrival of the military in Bermuda, art was not at the top of the priority list with Bermudians. Life was hard for the majority of the inhabitants and only a handful of people, usually young ladies, had the opportunity to indulge any artistic aspirations.

By the 19th century, however, there were regular advertisements in The Royal Gazette for drawing classes.

Some paintings and sketches by Bermudian artists have survived, but as Mr.

Adams points out, little is known about these individuals at the moment: "There is much research that still needs to be done on our Bermudian art heritage.'' A William Tucker, born in 1808, was one of the first known watercolourists. Another was Maria Louisa Lightbourne, born in 1859, who became one of the very first art students to attend Yale University. She taught many generations of Bermudians before her death in 1954.

The Tucker sisters, born in the 1870's (who are to be the subject of a major exhibition at the National Gallery early next year), defied convention and went off to study at the New York School of Applied Design, before returning to teach art and launch their remarkable business enterprises in Bermuda.

Through their watercolours, they have left some vibrant impressions of what Hamilton and its environs looked like at the beginning of the 20th century.

Although Winslow Homer was probably America's most famous artist when he first arrived here for a painting holiday in 1899, Bermuda was, typically, unimpressed.

He was among the first of a stream of American artists who came to paint in Bermuda. Seeking refuge from the harsh northern winters, they were greatly attracted by the Island's beauty.

Now, a large body of their work has been collected by the Masterworks Foundation, formed expressly to bring as many pictures as possible "home'' to Bermuda.

On show in the Masterworks section of the National Gallery are works by Homer, Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Demuth, Jack Bush and many others.

There is a special Hamilton connection with French cubist artist Alfred Gleizes, whose picture of Government House was actually painted in the old Hamilton Hotel, the site on which City Hall now stands.

After World War II, Bermuda's long history of isolation virtually ended. Air travel and the first stirrings of international business in Hamilton meant that more people were coming from overseas to live and work on the Island. The numbers of Bermudians going abroad for further education also increased rapidly. All of this brought about a new interest in the arts and was reflected by the formation in 1946, of the Bermuda Art Association, housed in the Hamilton Hotel. Even then, its stated mission was to try and establish a permanent art gallery.

In 1956, the Association joined forces with the Society of Artists to form the Bermuda Society of Arts.

Among the founding members was Charles Lloyd Tucker, Bermuda's first black artist to receive overseas acclaim when his work was accepted for the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in 1951.

Another member was Hereward Watlington, also a fine artist who studied in Paris and whose collection of four centuries of European art forms the nucleus of the National Gallery.

Today, the Bermuda Society of Arts is a flourishing body. In staging regular exhibitions by its members, it has probably done more than any other organisation to promote the cause and raise the standards of art in Bermuda.

Besides the two galleries within City Hall, there are several thriving commercial galleries dotting the city -- a far cry from 200 years ago, when the new little port of Hamilton was struggling just to provide Bermuda's growing population with the basic necessities of life.

FRENCH VIEW OF GOVERNMENT HOUSE -- French cubist artist Albert Gleizes painted this picture of Government House, seen from the old Hamilton Hotel (the present site of City Hall) in 1916. (Masterworks Collection).

HAMILTON -- 19th CENTURY VERSION -- Watercolour view of Hamilton in 1871 by Lt. C. Beresford. (Bermuda National Trust Collection, Bermuda Archives).

QUARRYING OF FORT HAMILTON -- Watercolour by Lt. C. Beresford shows workmen quarrying stone for the construction of the fort high above Hamilton, 1871.

(Bermuda National Trust Collection, Bermuda Archives).