Lot Essay
The present painting is a unique survival from Cazabon's stay in Martinique. Geoffrey MacLean included no oils of the island in his catalogue of known works by the artist in 1986 (G. MacLean, Cazabon, An Illustrated Biography etc., Port of Spain, 1986, pp. 128-134).
Born in Trinidad, the child of a free-coloured family whose origins were in the French West Indies and who moved to Trinidad from Martinique after 1789, Cazabon studied in Europe before setting up his studio in Port of Spain in 1848. He soon won the patronage of the Governor, Lord Harris, and of the wealthy planters Sir James Lamont and William Hardin Burnley, and his career developed in response to the demands of the local market. His output consisted mainly of scenes of Trinidad in watercolour and he produced drawings for two subscription albums of lithographs published in 1851 (Views of Trinidad) and 1857 (Album of Trinidad) as well as contributing to series of lithographs of Demerara and Martinique.
Having exhausted his clientele in Trinidad, Cazabon and his family moved to St. Pierre, Martinique in 1862 in search of new patrons. He rented a house in rue Longchamps, St. Pierre and produced works for merchants and wealthy planters and illustrations for the French newspapers, but appears to have had little success and returned to Trinidad at the end of the 1860s. In Trinidad he had difficulties resuming his career and died a forgotten figure in 1888.
Born in Trinidad, the child of a free-coloured family whose origins were in the French West Indies and who moved to Trinidad from Martinique after 1789, Cazabon studied in Europe before setting up his studio in Port of Spain in 1848. He soon won the patronage of the Governor, Lord Harris, and of the wealthy planters Sir James Lamont and William Hardin Burnley, and his career developed in response to the demands of the local market. His output consisted mainly of scenes of Trinidad in watercolour and he produced drawings for two subscription albums of lithographs published in 1851 (Views of Trinidad) and 1857 (Album of Trinidad) as well as contributing to series of lithographs of Demerara and Martinique.
Having exhausted his clientele in Trinidad, Cazabon and his family moved to St. Pierre, Martinique in 1862 in search of new patrons. He rented a house in rue Longchamps, St. Pierre and produced works for merchants and wealthy planters and illustrations for the French newspapers, but appears to have had little success and returned to Trinidad at the end of the 1860s. In Trinidad he had difficulties resuming his career and died a forgotten figure in 1888.