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Lot Essay
Few of Cazabon's early works from his years in Europe survive. The present previously unknown and unrecorded album dates, from the subjects, and one sheet dated 1841 (this unusually signed with initials JMC), and one sheet watermarked 1839, to circa 1840-42. Geoffrey MacLean, Cazabon's biographer, has hitherto recorded Cazabon in France (1837-40), Trinidad (1840) and Italy (1841-42) during these years. The subjects in this album also locate him sketching in England and Scotland in this period, and the style and subjects of the sketches suggest he may also have studied watercolour painting in England. The English motifs here, in particular the river landscapes, seem to anticipate the Maraval watercolours, both in terms of technique and subject, that would follow after Cazabon's return to Trinidad in the late 1840s.
Cazabon, a native of Trinidad, was schooled in England at St Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire between 1826 and 1830. He returned to Europe to study art in Paris in 1837 and was based primarily in France, exhibiting French, Italian and Trinidad subjects at the Paris Salon in 1839 and from 1843-47. The present album suggests he may have studied and worked in England for some time in 1840-42, adding information about his movements in the years (1840-42) when he did not exhibit at the Paris Salon. The inclusion of a single Trinidad subject probably dates to the 1840 trip to Trinidad, the Gibraltar and North African sketches probably to the outward or return voyage, and the Neapolitan landscapes to his recorded tour in Italy in 1841-42. Cazabon established his studio in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1848 and would settle permanently back in the West Indies from 1852.
Cazabon, a native of Trinidad, was schooled in England at St Edmund's College, Ware, Hertfordshire between 1826 and 1830. He returned to Europe to study art in Paris in 1837 and was based primarily in France, exhibiting French, Italian and Trinidad subjects at the Paris Salon in 1839 and from 1843-47. The present album suggests he may have studied and worked in England for some time in 1840-42, adding information about his movements in the years (1840-42) when he did not exhibit at the Paris Salon. The inclusion of a single Trinidad subject probably dates to the 1840 trip to Trinidad, the Gibraltar and North African sketches probably to the outward or return voyage, and the Neapolitan landscapes to his recorded tour in Italy in 1841-42. Cazabon established his studio in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in 1848 and would settle permanently back in the West Indies from 1852.