Isaac Mendes Belisario (1795 – 1849) was a Jamaican artist of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

descent. He was active in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

around the time of the

Emancipation Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchis ...

. His painting and printing work provides an eye-witness document of life in Jamaica of the time. He is one of the earliest artists who took a Jamaica-centric approach to the island's culture. His portfolio includes the lithograph ''Sketches of Character, In Illustration of the Habits, Occupation, and Costume of the Negro Population in the Island of Jamaica'', which was published in collaboration with the lithographer

Adolphe Duperly Adolphe Duperly (1801–1865) was a French engraver, lithographer and printer who settled in Kingston, Jamaica, and who produced daguerreotypes and then founded a photography business. Duperly was born in Paris, but was in Jamaica in the ...

in 1837–38, documents activities of the former slaves immediately after the emancipation. Tim Barringer, Gillian Forrester, Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz (eds), ''Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Belisario and his Worlds'', Yale Center for British Art, 2007. Some prints are the earliest visual representation of the masquerade of

John Canoe John Canoe, also known as January Conny, (died circa 1725) was the European name given to an Akan people, Akan warrior from Axim, Ghana. He was a chief of the Ahanta people in the early 18th century, who established a stronghold in the defunct Fo ...

References

Jamaican artists Jamaican Jews Jewish artists 1795 births 1849 deaths {{Jamaica-artist-stub