Attributed to Isaac Sailmaker, ca. 1633–1721, Dutch, active in Britain (from the 1640s)
Title:
The Island of Barbados
Date:
ca. 1694
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
44 1/2 x 91 inches (113 x 231.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.547
Gallery Label:
This is the earliest known painting of Barbados, which was colonized by the British in 1627 to exploit its resources for financial gain. When this image was painted, sugar was the island’s primary cash crop. The artist depicts the processes of the sugar industry, which fueled an explosion of wealth for white planters, traders, and colonial officials at the expense of African and Indigenous lives and freedom. Beyond the coastal settlements, the sugarcane grows in fields while the enslaved workers bundle it and carry it away for processing at the mill on the shore to the right of the fort. Nearby, white workers prepare to load the sugar onto the heavily armed merchant ships that will transport it to Britain and its New England colonies for further processing and trade. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2025
