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A Village in Brazil

Frans Post (Haarlem 1612 – Haarlem 1680)

Category

Art / Oil paintings

Date

circa 1675

Materials

Oil on panel

Measurements

190 x 244 mm (7 ½ x 9 ⅝ in)

Place of origin

Brazil

Order this image

Collection

Ham House, Surrey

NT 1139908

Summary

Oil painting on panel, A Village in Brazil, by Frans Post (Haarlem 1612 – Haarlem 1680), signed, lower right, in same shade of green as surrounding foliage: F. POST, circa 1675. A view of a Brazilian village in the middle ground, with a palm tree and rustic churches on the left beneath a palm tree, and houses in the centre and on the right; a wide, flattish landscape under a blue sky with clouds beyond; a pineapple in the foreground, left, and two figures on a path in the centre foreground, with others gathered in and around the church porch beyond. From 1637 to 1644 Post travelled to Brazil and the West-Indies in the retinue of Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, who had been sent by the Dutch West India Company to colonise north-east Brazil. Post was probably the first European to paint landscapes of the New World.

Full description

In Dutch landscape painting of the Golden Age, we encounter not only motifs from the Dutch countryside, but also landscapes from beyond the borders of the United Provinces. Few artists travelled as far as the Haarlem landscape painter Frans Post. His life and work are closely bound up with his patron, Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen (1604–1679), and hence with the origins of the Dutch colony on the north-east coast of Brazil. The Dutch seized the territory from the Portuguese in 1630 primarily for the sake of its lucrative sugar trade, since a large proportion of the sugar consumed in Europe at that time came from this region. To boost sugar production, the Dutch West India Company –a precursor of today's multinationals – appointed the successful young army officer Johan Maurits as governor general of the Dutch colony in Brazil in 1636. On 25 October of that year, the newly appointed 'governor, captain and Admiral- General' set sail for the West, where he ruled until 1644, having formed a European-style household. Johan Maurits did not view Brazil merely as a profitable dependency: he also found its population and its local plant and animal life endlessly fascinating. This explains why his retinue included not only soldiers but also natural scientists, cartographers and other researchers, and even artists, among whom were the young painters Albert Eckhout and Frans Post. [1] Never before had this part of South America been so thoroughly studied and documented by a European. The landscapes Post made in Brazil between 1637 and 1644 – dated with the precision of Pieter Saenredam (see NT 446733), since a number of signatures include day, month and year – are the first views of the 'New World' by a European artist. The same applies to nine life-size figure pieces with prominent landscapes which Eckhout painted in the early 1640s. The ambitious Johan Maurits used his unique collection, including the paintings he commissioned from Eckhout and Post, in a number of diplomatic 'gifts'. In accordance with the custom of the day, he always received something tangible in return. Some gifts were clearly intended to enhance his power and status, such as the twenty-one paintings by Eckhout (and three portraits attributed to him) that Johan Maurits presented to the Danish king in 1654 (now part of the collection of the Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen). On the other hand, his gift of forty-two paintings to Louis XIV seems to have been prompted by a lack of money. The gift to the French king included eighteen paintings Frans Post produced in Brazil, only seven of which are known today. His 'View of the Island of Itamarac', dated 1637, is the earliest of the series. [2] This canvas, showing the stretch of the island that faces Rio Iguarassu, with Fort Orange and a few houses in the small town of Schoppe at far right, is characteristic of the first group of landscapes Post made in Brazil. The horizon is low, the landscape makes a flat impression, and water takes up much of the view. Only a few figures populate what is otherwise a largely empty scene, but they fulfil an essential role by intensifying the picture's air of barrenness. The seven paintings mentioned above are now in four different collections. During the upheavals of the French Revolution, the French royal collection suffered great losses, and several paintings that had belonged to the 1679 gift changed hands. A 'View of the Island of Itamarac' of 1637 is now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, on permanent loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The building that houses The Hague collection was commissioned by Count Johan Maurits in 1633 and designed by Jacob van Campen; perhaps it was Van Campen's assistant, Pieter Post, who introduced his brother Frans to the count. Post's years in Brazil made such a lasting impression on him that he devoted himself exclusively to Brazilian landscapes for the rest of his life, working in his native city of Haarlem from the time of his return in about 1644 until his death in 1680. Besides documenting the local Brazilian topography, Post's work is characterised by an atmospheric quality and the spontaneous rendering of natural scenery. It can be assumed that he did not rely solely on his visual memory, but also used drawings he had made in Brazil, some of which were recently rediscovered. [3] The painter had a monopoly on views of Dutch Brazil, as the only trained artist besides Eckhout to have stayed there. His oeuvre numbers about two hundred paintings, around a quarter of which are now considered lost. [4] In Haarlem, Post abandoned his previous, somewhat monochrome tonality and turned instead to quite strong colours that greatly enhanced the appeal of his work . [5] These paintings were purchased by important collectors, including Stadholder Frederick Henry of Orange, who paid large sums of money for them. From about 1660 onwards, in his most prosperous period, Post started to place less emphasis on topographical accuracy and to wield his brush more loosely. The paintings made in the last ten years of his life attest to a decline in quality, evidently attributable to alcoholism, an affliction shared by other Dutch artists. It was even reported that Post experienced considerable trembling towards the end of his life. [6] His deteriorating health explains the lesser quality of 'A Village in Brazil' at Ham House. Abrasion of the paint layers allows the grain of the wood to shine through the scene, which is among Post's last dozen works and was probably made around 1675. It shows some of the enslaved men and women whom the Dutch had taken from Africa to Brazil to work on the plantations and in the sugar mills. The enslaved men and women who figure in nearly all of Post's paintings reflect the daily reality of the colony, where thousands of African men, women and children lived in slavery. To the left we see a small chapel with a portico bearing a cross (which appears in several other paintings by Post), [7] with small houses in the middle and two larger buildings at right. The couleur locale is determined by the palm tree to the left of the chapel and, at lower left, a pineapple plant on which a tropical bird perches. This modest work is of great importance, not so much for its composition as for its very early and complete provenance. Its history can be traced back almost to the artist, which is exceptional for the paintings that Post produced for the free market. It was first described in the Private Closet of Elizabeth Murray, Countess of Dysart (NT 1139764). In 1672 she married John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (NT 1139787), who had brought many paintings from his own collection to Ham House. An inventory drawn up in 1683 states that Post's panel was bought between 1677 and 1679, that is to say, during the painter's lifetime. [8] It is the oldest record of a painting by Post in England, where his work is still fairly rare. [9] The Royal Collection, however, has a prime example of Post's work, a painting that was acquired by King George III in 1762 as part of Joseph Smith's famous collection of pictures. [10] Like the paintings by Post that ended up in the Louvre as a result of Johan Maurits's 1679 gift, the small painting at Ham House has not left its original home for more than 330 years. [11] Quentin Buvelot, 2018 Notes [1] Buvelot et al., 'Albert Eckhout: A Dutch Artist in Brazil', The Hague (Mauritshuis): 2004. [2] no. 1, Pedro and Bia Corrêa do Lago, 'Frans Post (1612–1680): Catalogue Raisonné', Milan: 2007. Regarding the gift to Louis XIV, see P. Corrêa do Lago and B. Ducos, Frans Post (1612–1680): Le Brésil à la cour de Louis XIV, exh. cat., Paris (Musée du Louvre) 2005. [3] A. de Bruin, ‘Frans Post: Animals in Brazil’, Master Drawings, 54, 2016, pp. 292–368. [4] Corrêa do Lago 2007, nos. 1–55, with additions in Q. Buvelot, ‘Frans Post (1612–1680): Catalogue raisonné. By Pedro & Bia Corrêa do Lago’, The Burlington Magazine, 150, 2008, pp. 116–17. [5] Corrêa do Lago 2007, no. 42. [6] Corrêa do Lago 2007, p. 80. [7] For example, Corrêa do Lago 2007, no. 146; see also ibid., p. 306. [8] Corrêa do Lago 2007, p. 145. As early as 1683, the painting was inventoried under another name in ‘An Estimate of Pictures in Ham-house’ (The Tollemache Papers, Buckminster Estate Office, MSS, no. 361): ‘33. An Indian Landskip of Dewit’. The number 33 is recorded on the back of the panel. Another inventory drawn up in that year does in fact mention Post as the author. See A. Laing, ‘Appendix 2: Fitting Pictures to Rooms: A Re-Examination of the Ham House ‘Estimate of Pictures’ (c.1683), and its Collation with the Inventories’, in C. Rowell (ed.), Ham House: 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, New Haven and London, 2013, p. 411. [9] Corrêa do Lago 2007, p. 339. The National Gallery, London, has a work by Post on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (ibid., no. 125). [10] Corrêa do Lago 2007, no. 18. [11] The seventeenth-century frame of ebonized wood and ebonized wood and ebony veneer is probably original. Adapted from 'Prized Possessions: Dutch Paintings from National Trust Houses' (exh. cat.), pp.150–3, cat. 17.

Provenance

In around 1683 catalogue as Post and 1683 valuation list as Dewit and thence by descent until acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002

Marks and inscriptions

Verso: on back of panel in ink: A Landsckip of a West Indian Plantation – by De Wit Pret: £5:0:0:; in brown ink, bold [1683]: 33; in blue ink on laid paper: 95; and on a later label: B / 2749.

Makers and roles

Frans Post (Haarlem 1612 – Haarlem 1680), artist

References

Corrêa do Lago 2007 Pedro and Bìa Corrêa do Lago, Frans Post (1612–1680), catalogue raisonné, Milan, 2007, p.326, no.145 Prized Possessions: Dutch Paintings from National Trust Houses (exh. cat.), Holburne Museum, Bath 25 May - 16 Sep 2018; Mauritshuis, The Hague, 11 Oct 2018 - 6 Jan 2019; Petworth House, West Sussex, 26 Jan - 24 Mar 2019., pp. 150-3, no. 17

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