The mixed-race son of immigrants from Martinique who owned a sugar plantation, Cazabon was schooled as an English gentleman at St Edmund’s College in Ware, and later at art school in Paris.
On his return to Trinidad in 1852 he is credited with introducing Europeans to the flora and fauna of the West Indies through plate books published the 1850s-60s.
George Harris, 3rd Baron Harris and governor of Trinidad from 1848-54, was a key patron. The collection of 44 Cazabon paintings displayed at his family seat, Belmont in Kent, is considered the key visual reference for 19th century Trinidad.
This 10 x 7in (25 x 17cm) example is titled View in the Valley of St Annes, Trinidad.
It came for sale at Gerrards of Lytham St Annes on February 6-7 from a private collection with an estimate of £8000-10,000. It sold to a buyer using thesaleroom.com after a five-minute competition.
Signed works such as this are rare visitors to the auction room, although there are some precedents. According to Art Sales Index, the record for the artist is the £50,000 bid at Christie’s back in 1997 for an oil titled Coast at Le Carbet, Martinique.
More recently, in December 2017, Figures Bathing in a Pool, Plantation Houses Beyond, Trinidad, sold for £42,000, also at Christie’s, while in August 2018, Cumbrian firm Penrith Farmers’ & Kidd sold a foxed and stained watercolour of a British merchant vessel at anchor in the Caribbean for £27,000.
