Chimneysweeper
This lithograph shows a man covered in soot, wearing tattered clothes, carrying several brooms and smoking a pipe. Belisario explained how the sweeper cleaned "the typical kitchen-chimney with its covered top, as a protection to the fire during the heavy falls of rain." Noting that "the preferred wood used in kitchens is the cashew, the inhabitants of Kingston are by law obliged to have their chimneys frequently swept, a precaution highly requisite in a city where the houses are shingled." Isaac Mendes Belisario (1795–1849) was a Jamaican artist of Jewish descent and active in Kingston Jamaica around British emancipation in 1833. The image shown here, as well as others of “John-Canoes,” was drawn from life by Belisario in 1836. This lithograph is one of twelve originally published in three parts, four plates at a time.
Image Title
Chimneysweeper
RegID
SI-OB-918
Date
1838
Title
Chimneysweeper
Source
Isaac Mendes Belisario, Sketches of character, in illustration of the habits, occupation, and costume of the Negro population, in the island of Jamaica: drawn after nature, and in lithography (Kingston, Jamaica: Published by the artist, 1837-1838).
Language
English
Item sets
Miscellaneous Occupations & Economic Activities
Spatial Coverage
Caribbean--Jamaica--Kingston
Researchers
Jerome Handler; Michael Tuite; Henry B. Lovejoy Graduate Research Assistants: Tiffany Beebe; Travis May
Last Updated
13-May-16; 3-Sep-19
Identifier
Belisario09