A Landscape Examined: Jamaica’s Role in the Making of Empire

The American painter Martin Johnson Heade captured the majesty of Jamaica’s high mountains in his 1874 painting Tropical Uplands. Using Heade’s canvas as a starting point, Louis P. Nelson, Professor of Architectural History and Vice Provost for Academic Outreach, University of Virginia, examines the world it depicts and Jamaica’s place in the evolving economies of empire. Nelson reveals how local architecture adapted to the Caribbean’s violent climate and how the island’s geography shaped its populations, from the British-controlled coastal lowlands that were defined by enslaved labor to the seclusion of the high mountains that became a refuge for Maroons, self-emancipators who reconstituted themselves in free Black communities. Trade to and from the island—including exotic tropical hardwoods, foodstuffs, luxury wares, and even whole house frames—connected Jamaica to the North American mainland, to the western ports of the United Kingdom, and to the coast of Africa. Within this exchange of goods, peoples, and ideas, a creole culture emerged that shaped all aspects of Jamaican life, from furniture design to social mores. As Caribbean-derived wealth flowed back to North America and England, Jamaica emerged as a complex and central node within the greater Atlantic World.

Established to honor the memory of Andrew Carnduff Ritchie, director of the Yale University Art Gallery from 1957 to 1971, the annual Andrew Carnduff Ritchie Lecture, jointly sponsored by the Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art, brings distinguished members of the international visual arts community to the University. These lectures honor Ritchie’s belief that the art museum should serve as a gathering place for all members of the community. Generously sponsored by the Andrew Carnduff Ritchie Fund.

You may also like the following events from Yale University Art Gallery:

• Next month, 4th September, 05:30 pm, Sketching in the Galleries in New Haven
• Next month, 25th September, 05:30 pm, Living Cloth: Textiles and Society in Indonesia in New Haven
• This October, 9th October, 05:30 pm, Four Scholars, Four Paintings in New Haven

Also check out other Arts events in New Haven, Fine Arts events in New Haven.