George Robertson (c. 1748–1788), United Kingdom, painter
Daniel Lerpinière (1745–1785), France, engraver
John Boydell (1719–1804), United Kingdom, publisher
A View in the Island of Jamaica, of Part of the River Cobre near Spanish Town, 1778
Line-engraving
Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros
In 1778, Daniel Lerpinière published a series of six engravings after works by the English painter George Robertson, who had studied the masters of European landscape painting with the support of the patron and landowner William Beckford. Around 1773, Robertson and Beckford traveled to Jamaica, where the painter documented views of Beckford’s properties and other Jamaican scenery. Robertson portrayed Jamaica and its inhabitants according to the principles of the picturesque, transforming unknown lands and strange peoples into familiar, palatable images for English audiences.