Painting by 18th century Jamaican artist fetches $80’000 US

Painting by 18th century Jamaican artist fetches $80’000 US

A painting by the Jamaican-born, 18th century artist, musician and botanist, Samuel Felsted recently sold for US$80,000 at Freeman's, an established auction house in Philadelphia, USA.  The painting titled A North-East View of the House of Mr. Emanuel Lousada; Kingston Jamaica (1778) was bought by an unidentified bidder on the floor.

Felsted was born in Jamaica in 1743, a property owner by the age of 19, and baptized as an Anabaptist in 1763 at the age of 20. In 1770 he married Maria Laurence, daughter of a plantation owner and they had eight children. For most of his life, Felsted was the organist at St Andrew Parish Church in Half-Way-Tree, Kingston. He is best known today as the composer of Jonah, the first complete oratorio written in the New World, which was published in London in 1775.  Felsted died in 1802.

The artwork by Felsted was produced some 50 years before early proponents of Jamaican art — Belisario and Kidd. This commissioned painting and his efforts in the field of music also illustrate the early beginnings of professional art practice in Jamaica.

For more go to: https://nationalgalleryofjamaica.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/18th-century-jamaican-painting-auctions-for-us80000/

An adaptation of Richard Johnson’s article

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May 2017