English School (circa 1800)
A Planter's Homestead; Landing the barrels, a pair
oil on canvas
63.5 x 101.6 cm. (25 x 40 in.)
Saleroom notices
- George Robertson (British, 1748-1788)
A view of Montego Bay, Jamaica;
Barrels of sugar awaiting shipment, Jamaica, a pair
oil on canvas
63.5 x 101.6 cm. (25 x 40 in.)
£20,000 - 40,000
George Robertson, a "landskip painter", was brought to Jamaica ca. 1774/5 by his patron William Beckford (1744-1799) of Hertford Penn, Westmorland, Jamaica and Sommerley Hall, Suffolk. He produced several paintings for Beckford in the picturesque aesthetic tradition, providing portraits of estates for the wealthy Creole and non-Creole Jamaican elites.
Beckford, after having Robertson produce six Jamaican views that were published by Boydell, and were well known and are still in circulation today, encouraged Robertson to paint for other Creole planters at the time. Robertson produced 15 Jamaican landscape views that were exhibited at the Incorporated Society of Artists between 1775 and 1778. Five of these works were of Beckford's estates. The balance comprised of sugar estates for other proprietors,