On the evening of April 27, the Bermuda National Gallery hosted a talk on the Royal Collection given by Wolf Burchard, a former curator of the Royal Collection who is an associate curator at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Royal Collection is the largest, privately owned collection in the world. I have read that it has at least a million objects of some kind of art, including the decorative arts – furnishings and china – as well as paintings, drawings and sculpture, etc. It is spread among a number of palaces and even some art museums.

The Royal Collection was started by King Charles I who, you will recall, lost his head as a result of the English Civil War. This resulted in some of the collection being sold, but from Dr Burchard’s talk, I learnt that some of the collection was retained, thus not all was lost.

With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, King Charles II began to rebuild and expand the Royal Collection and this process has continued to this day.

In connection with the Royal Collection and at the behest of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, in 1962 the Queen’s Gallery was opened to the public. The Gallery is located in Buckingham Palace, in what was formally a private chapel which was destroyed in an air raid in 1940.

The Queen’s Gallery typically exhibits about 450 works at any one time, but on a rotating basis.

All this has got me thinking about the art of collecting art. We humans are noted for collecting all kinds of stuff, be it stamps, ceramics, old automobiles, antiques – as well as art. In most cases, collecting begins because of an individual’s interest in a certain whatever and that is where the Royal Collection differs, in that it is a 400-year-old collection with generations impacting and accommodating to varied and changing interests. In other words, it is vastly more wide-ranging in its focus.

Most serious art collectors specialise. Their focus is usually fairly narrow, be it original prints, art from a particular period, place, style, material, etc. Unlike many who buy art to decorate their walls but then stop buying after the decorating is finished, serious collectors often have a compulsion to collect, even though their walls are already covered with art. One collector described that compulsion as a kind of disease.

Of course it is possible that those more casual art buyers, while not serious collectors, might yet own very important and desirable works of art.

What is notable is that private collections often end up in public collections, in art museums. An example of this is the Watlington Collection at the Bermuda National Gallery. It began as the private collection of Hereward Watlington, but in his will he left it to the people of Bermuda with detailed stipulations requiring it to be housed in a suitable climate controlled facility. The Bermuda National Gallery met those requirements.

Over the 30-odd years since the Bermuda National Gallery opened its door to the public, several other collectors have donated their collections to the BNG. I think of the Young Collection and also the David L. White Collection or the Richard Saunders photographic collection. Additionally, others have donated individual works and occasionally, the BNG has added to the collection by means of purchase.

Of particular significance is the BNG’s collection of African art. It was once part of a larger collection put together by a New York collector, which eventually was put up for sale. Under the guidance of Colin “Dusty” Hind, 23 objects were selected and the general public was invited to purchase single pieces for the BNG collection. It became a real community effort, with not only individuals buying into the endeavour, but also schools. This happened in wake of the BNG’s first imported exhibition, from New York’s Museum for African Art, in 1993: Secrecy, African Art that Conceals and Reveals. It is said that the BNG collection of African art is old, high quality and has provenance.

While the BNG has a more eclectic collection, the Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art has centred its collecting aim on art about Bermuda. Initially, much of its collection consisted of views of Bermuda created by visitors to Bermuda but in time – with its visiting artists programme plus its temporary exhibitions of art by local artists – it has built up a respectable comprehensive collection of Bermuda art by both locals and visiting artists, some being internationally famous such as Winslow Homer and Georgia O’Keefe.

Like the BNG, Masterworks has also be the beneficiary of being gifted collections. I think of the Tucker Sisters Collection also the Bruce Stuart Collection and the Harold Pestana Collection. Special mention of Tom Butterfield as a collector is important, but his collecting was, from the start, a public collection in that he founded the Masterworks Museum to show it.

Numerous other art museums have been the beneficiary of private collections as well. It is a common practice and it keeps intact the effort an individual has put into forming a collection. I think of a couple collectors with Bermuda connections, whose collections were donated to other museums. I think of the Dennis Sherwin Collection of contemporary original prints, that was left to the Cleveland Museum of Art in Ohio.

Another is the Nancy Valentine Collection of silver by women silversmiths. That collection is now, appropriately, in the National Museum of Women in Art, in Washington. In conjunction with that acquisition by NMWA, they, in association with Thames and Hudson, published Women Silversmiths 1685 – 1845. This is a 176-page volume with numerous full colour illustrations, plus Valentine’s engaging story of putting that collection together.

Whatever the motivation that compels individuals to collect art and then, often at their demise, give it away to a public institution to share with the public, is something to be honoured. We are all the better for this kind of altruism and we owe them a big thank you.

In addition to those who have given their collections to art museums, there are those who right now are actively involved in collecting art. It is my observation that many of these are particularly generous in sharing their treasures with the public by lending works for exhibitions.

When I think of a flourishing community, I see it as being not only economically thriving, I see it as being a multifaceted culturally active, desirable place to live. It should be a place that encourages the arts by supporting them, participating in them – be it the visual arts or performing arts. By participation, I include not only performers, but also institutions that showcase the arts and critics and media that encourage the arts, It includes collectors and above all, a general public that enjoys and attends art events. In a multi-ethnic, international community such as Bermuda, I see a people that enjoys and encourages a variety of events that reflects the make-up of that community.

Again, art collectors, thank you.