Isaac Mendes Bellisario-Cocoa Walk Estate 1836-42.
The National Gallery of Jamaica hosts Isaac Mendes Bellisario: Art and Emancipation in Jamaica from March 2 to April 12. Opening ceremony begins at 11:00 a.m. and will feature Jonkonnu and classical music.
At the heart of the exhibition will be the remarkable series of lithographs, Sketches of Character, In Illustration of the Habits, Occupation and Costume of the Negro Population in the Island of Jamaica, published by Bellisario in collaboration with the lithographer Adolphe Duperly in 1837-38. Sketches of Character provide the first detailed visual representation of Jonkonnu (or John Canoe), the celebrated Afro-Jamaican masquerade performed by the enslaved during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
Tracing the West African roots of Jonkonnu, its evolution in Jamaica and continuing transformation into the 21st century, the exhibition will feature subsequent manifestations of Jonkonnu through costumes, musical instruments and video footage of historic and contemporary performance.
Isaac Mendes Belisario: Art and Emancipation in Jamaica is curated by Dr David Boxer, chief curator of the National Gallery. Guest speaker is Professor Barry Chevannes and admission is free.
About Isaac Mendes Bellisaro
Isaac Mendes Bellisario was born in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1795 into a Sephardic Jewish family of Spanish and Portuguese origin. The family had close ties to the Sephardic community in London. His grandfather Isaac Mendes Bellisario, after whom he was named, taught children at the Bevis Marks synagogue in London. The older Isaac's son Abraham was sent to Jamaica in 1786 to work for Alexandre Lindo, a wealthy merchant, plantation owner, and slave factor. Five years later, Abraham married Alexandre's daughter Esther, and in 1803 Abraham, Esther and their six children - the younger Isaac, Caroline, Lydia, Hannah, Rose and Maria - moved to London.
The younger Isaac trained as an artist under Robert Hills, the landscape watercolourist and drawing master. He exhibited landscapes between 185 and 1818 but put aside his artistic endeavours in the 1820s when he worked as a stockbroker. In 1831, Isaac showed a portrait at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, but shortly thereafter settled in Kingston, where he had a practice as an artist.
In 1837-38, Bellisario produced his best-known work, Sketches of Character, In Illustration of the Habits, Occupation, and Costume of the Negro Population in the Island of Jamaica, a series of 12 hand-coloured lithographs. His last documented Kingston work is a lithograph of 1846, and he died in London in 1849. Research has revealed little more than the sparsest biographical information and no portrait of Bellisario has come to light.
Despite the iconic status that Sketches of Character has acquired, the artist remains an enigmatic figure, who seems to have assumed various identities as he oscillated between the centre and periphery of empire, moving in and between Jewish and gentile, religious and secular, and artistic and mercantile worlds, a powerful metaphor for the diaspora itself.
