A pair of 18th century portraits by the English painter Joseph Blackburn, acquired at auction last year for the Bermuda National Gallery, are now on show after restoration in London.

It was thanks to art benefactors Fay and Geoffrey Elliott that these portraits -- important from both an artistic and historical standpoint -- were acquired for Bermuda's permanent collection.

The portraits, commenced in 1752 and completed during the artists' two-year sojourn in the colony, are of The Hon. Thomas Gilbert and his wife Sarah.

Local big-wigs (literally, in the case of Thomas as he sports the curled and powdered wig, considered de rigeur for a wealthy shipowner, Speaker of the House, Chief Justice and a member of the Governor's Council), the Gilberts formed part of the select circle of Bermudians whose portraits were painted by the artist over that period; Blackburn also painted Sarah's parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Harvey, her brother and two of her sisters. The Gilberts themselves were the parents of eight children.

"We are very pleased with the beautiful restoration work.'' says Mrs.

Elliott, "Mr. Gilbert, in particular, was in a terrible state when we bought the pictures and, at first, we thought his painting perhaps hadn't really been worth buying. But, in fact, when the paintings were sent to London, the restorer found that `Mr.' was much easier to work on because there had been no earlier restoration work. On the other hand, someone had painted in some lace over Mrs. Gilbert's bosom -- probably to satisfy some Victorian sensibilities! -- and that had to come off. There was quite a lot of over-painting of her portrait so it was quite a challenge which, luckily, has turned out very well, I think.'' The Elliotts' purchase of the Driver portfolio for the Bermuda Archives formed the basis of the gallery's exhibition, `Through British Eyes' (curated by John Adams) at the Pierpont Morgan Library, which was also sponsored by them. Mr.

Elliott is a trustee of the gallery and serves on the Finance Committee, while Mrs. Elliott is always happy to do her regular weekly "stint'' at the gallery's reception and information desk.

The Bermuda National Gallery and Government Archivist John Adams were united in their determination that the portraits, which descended through various members of the Gilbert family, should remain in Bermuda and, thanks to the generosity of the Elliotts, an important part of Bermuda's heritage has indeed now been saved.

While Blackburn could hardly be considered to be in the front rank of British portraitists of the time (Reynolds and Gainsborough were his contemporaries), he has secured his niche in Bermuda's history as one of the first portrait artists to work here (he arrived in 1752). During his two-year stay, he was commissioned to paint at least 25 portraits of various Bermudian worthies and, subsequently, was considered for several years to be the leading portraitist of New England. After painting some notable personalities in Boston and around New Hampshire, Blackburn returned to Britain where he continued to paint in southwest England.

Restored portraits on show The Blackburn portraits show the Gilberts posing in the conventional, European attitude of the day: Mr. Gilbert boasts a cravat and his wife, decorative fan in hand, wears a low-cut, lace-trimmed gown. Hardly surprisingly, they have donned their best finery for the occasion. While the poses may seem strained and reveal an element of artificiality, it should perhaps be borne in mind that commission artists would almost certainly have demurred to the wishes of their sitters. If Blackburn and his ilk have accorded them a status that seems pretentious to the modern viewer it is just as likely that the artist himself was enjoying a quiet chuckle to himself as he went along with apparent colonial yearnings for the `English' ideal. From the sitters' point of view, it should also be remembered that at that time, portraits were the photographs of the day and a desire to reflect the fashionable conventions of the day in `suitable' attire as they posed for posterity was in no way remarkable.

Perhaps Blackburn's greatest contribution to Bermuda was that he introduced and firmly established a tradition of portraiture which has continued as a definitive feature of Bermuda's art down to the present day.

The portraits, which can now be seen in the Ondaatje Wing of the gallery, form an interesting addition to the European collection of paintings bequeathed by the late Hereward Watlington to form the core of Bermuda's national collection of art.