Paul Gauci

This ca. 1839 watercolor of Jamaica’s Kingston Harbor was painted during a moment of significant political change. In 1838, after several decades of fierce rebellion by enslaved Caribbean and West African people in the British-ruled colony, slavery was abolished in Jamaica. The artist’s focus in this image, however, is on the timelessness of the landscape and its inhabitants, rather than on any signs of recent events. By representing Kingston Harbor as a vast expanse of land, sparsely populated and with little sign of development, this painting works to justify the continuation of British colonial rule for audiences back in England, where it was published.

–SM