^
Died on 16 February 1680: Frans Janszoon Post (or Poost), Dutch landscape
painter born in 1612.
— Post was born in Leiden and active mainly in
Haarlem. In 1637-44 he was a member of the Dutch West India Company's
voyage of colonization to Brazil and became the first European to paint
landscapes in the New World. He observed the unfamiliar flora and fauna
with an appropriate freshness, creating scenes of remarkable vividness and
charm, and he continued to paint Brazilian landscapes after his return to
the Netherlands (indeed he is not known to have painted any other type of
picture). Because of his "naive" style, he has been called the Douanier
Rousseau of the 17th century, and he was virtually forgotten or regarded
as a curiosity until the 20th century. His brother Pieter (1608-69) was
one of the outstanding Dutch architects of the 17th century (the Huis ten
Bosch near The Hague is his most famous work) and also occasionally
painted.
— One of the first European-trained artists to paint in the
Americas, Frans Post accompanied the newly appointed Dutch governor on an
expedition to the colony of Brazil from 1637 to 1644. Probably taught by
his painter father, who was the brother of architect Pieter Post, Frans
used his early training to paint Brazilian landscapes, plants, animals,
and natives. Together with Albert Eckhout and other artists and
scientists, he recorded various aspects of Brazilian life, capturing the
local atmosphere and topography. Post's experiences in South America
remained a fundamental influence; for the rest of his career, he produced
imaginary Brazilian landscapes. More than thirty paintings by the artist
were presented to Louis XIV of France in 1679 and were later used by the
Gobelins Tapestry Manufactory as the basis for the popular tapestry
series, " Les anciennes Indes”. Towards the end of his life, Post's
memories of Brazil began to fade, and his works became increasing
decorative.
— LINKS — Brazilian Landscape - Brazilian
Landscape _ Post painted only Brazilian landscapes while in Brazil and
later in Haarlem.
— Hacienda (1652, 45x65cm) _ From 1637 to 1644, Post
accompanied the retinue of Prince Johan Maurits of Nassau Siegen to
Brazil, where he painted the landscape around Pernambuco and on a number
of oceanic islands, as well as genre scenes of local life. This Dutch
artist's sensitivity to specific situations, landscape and people make
Post's Brazilian paintings an invaluable source of information regarding
not only the flora and fauna of the region, but also the dress and customs
of the time. On his return, Post settled in Haarlem and, like all his
Dutch colleagues, he specialized, concentrating especially on tropical and
exotic views. In his paintings, we note that, although he supplies details
and specific information about this far-off land, the paintings themselves
are nevertheless organized along the lines of conventional Dutch landscape
paintings. The gaze of the spectator is drawn from the foreground into the
depths of the landscape. This distant view with atmospheric changes and a
large proportion of sky, are typical features of Dutch painting.
Genre-type figures are also included in the compositional structure of
these Brazilian scenes.
— The
Ox Cart (1638, 61x88cm) _ The Dutch Republic settled overseas
territories as colonies, often gained in battle with other seafaring
powers. For their apparent truthfulness, Dutch pictures show little of
colonial working life, concentrating rather on colonial benefits to trade,
art, and science. The most impressive colonial artistic project was the
transcription in texts, maps, and pictures of the sites, peoples, fauna,
and flora of eastern Brazil, under Dutch control from 1630 to 1654.
Scientists trained in medicine, biology, and cartography, and artists,
including Frans Post, gathered material for the Historia Naturalis
Brasiliae, a large natural and ethnographic study of Brazil,
illustrated with 533 woodcuts of exotic discoveries from swordfish to
chiefs of indigenous tribes. Frans Post's records of Brazilian rivers,
roads, and fields fit well-established schemes of Dutch landscape
painting. But for its inclusion of workers of African origin and the
exotic tree, his Ox Cart resembles near-contemporary Dutch
pictures. Although not intended perniciously, such paintings of Dutch
Brazil mark the indigenous scene as Dutch indeed, easily and rightfully
accessible to Dutch cultivation.
— Le Cheval Rayé From the "Les Anciennes Indes" _ Detail: Coat of arms in border (Woven at the Gobelins
Tapestry Manufactory; after a cartoon by Albert Eckhout and Frans Post,
330x574cm) _ Studies made by two Dutch artists during an exploratory
expedition to Brazil from 1637 to 1644 were the inspiration for this
tapestry. The newly appointed Dutch governor, Prince Johan Maurits of
Nassau, led a group of scientists and artists, including Albert Eckhout
and Frans Post, to Brazil, where they studied and painted the unusual
plant and animal life of this country. Many of the plants, fish, birds,
and other animals woven in this hanging can be traced to life studies made
by Eckhout and Post in South America. French artists at the Gobelins
manufactory, who designed the cartoon to heighten the tapestry's
impression of drama and exoticism, probably introduced other animals, such
as the Indian rhinoceros and "striped horse" or
zebra. |
— [“Where there's a
Wille, there's a Waye?”] 
