Thomas William Bowler, prolific painter at the Cape, is born

English born Thomas William Bowler was a self taught painter and printmaker who spent most of his life at the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived at the Cape with astronomer Thomas McClear in 1834 whom he worked for until his dismissal in 1835. After marrying Jane Elizabeth Hawthorne, he set himself up as a ‘professor of drawing and landscape painter’ in 1839. Bowler spent five years studying and practising drawing before he reached master status in the craft. His subject matter focused mostly on events that were taking place in the Cape and Natal as well as landscapes. Bowler began teaching art to children to supplement his income and subsequently opened his own art school in 1861. He took up lessons with famous watercolourist J.D Harding on a brief visit to Britain and brought back this knowledge to share with his students. On encountering financial hardships in South Africa, Bowler returned to England. He died of bronchitis in the Middlesex Hospitals in London.