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Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed and dated (right, on papaya tree): F POST / 1650

Gallery LabelIn 1637–44 Post accompanied Prince Johan Maurits of Nassau on a comprehensive exploration of northeastern Brazil. The first scientific description of Brazil, published in Amsterdam in 1647, included engraved plates after topographical drawings by Post.

This picture is one of the few large paintings by Post among the 140 that are known. The view is unique in the artist's oeuvre, and the figures are unusually prominent. For a Dutch painter, the plants, the people, the huts in the wood, the boats on the river, the iguana, and the palm trees on the horizon were exotic subjects, but Post observed them with the same directness that his contemporaries employed in painting their native environment.

NotesPost was a member of the 1637–44 expedition led by Prince Johan Maurits of Nassau to explore northeastern Brazil.

ProvenancePopper, Prague (in 1946); E. Kellner, Rio de Janeiro (in 1947); E. Rais, Rio de Janeiro (until 1948); Octales Marcondes Ferreira, São Paulo (1948–at least 1973); [Noortman & Brod, New York, until 1981; sold to MMA]

Exhibition History

Rio de Janeiro. Museu de Arte Moderna. "Os Pintores de Maurício de Nassau," May 21–July 7, 1968, no. 17 (as "Paisagem Fluvial," lent by O. Marcondes Ferreira, São Paulo).

Haus der Kunst München. "Frans Post (1612–1680): Maler des Verlorenen Paradieses," June 2–September 17, 2006, no. 8 (as "Brasilianische Landschaft mit Tupi-Indianern").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

References

Joaquim de Sousa Leão, filho. Frans Post. São Paulo, 1948, p. 99, no. 11, ill. p. 46, as in the collection of O. Marcondes Ferreira, São Paulo.

Argeu Guimarães. "Na Holanda, com Frans Post." Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 235 (April–June 1957), p. 258, no. 69, as in the collection of O. Marcondes Ferreira, São Paulo.

Erik Larsen. Frans Post. Amsterdam, 1962, p. 187, no. 15.

Joaquim de Sousa-Leão. Frans Post, 1612–1680. Amsterdam, 1973, p. 65, no. 14, ill., as in the O. Marcondes Ferreira collection, São Paulo; calls it "an unusual setting for Post"; gives provenance information.

Walter A. Liedtke. "Frans Post at the Met and in General." Tableau 4 (January–February 1982), pp. 350–51, ill. (color).

Walter A. Liedtke in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1981–1982. New York, [1982], pp. 41–42, ill.

Peter C. Sutton. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Grand Rapids, Mich., 1986, p. 191.

Frederik J. Duparc in The Dictionary of Art. 25, New York, 1996, p. 326, calls it "one of his most successful compositions of [the] period".

Pedro Corrêa do Lago in Frans Post: Le Brésil à la cour de Louis XIV. Exh. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris. Milan, 2005, p. 23, fig. III.10 (color).

León Krempel. Frans Post (1612–1680): Maler des Verlorenen Paradieses. Exh. cat., Haus der Kunst München. Petersberg, Germany, 2006, pp. 21, 24, 78–80, 133, 147, no. 8, ill. (color).

George Gordon in Frans Post (1612–1680): Catalogue Raisonné. Milan, 2007, p. 73.

Pedro Corrêa do Lago and Bia Corrêa do Lago. Frans Post (1612–1680): Catalogue Raisonné. Milan, 2007, pp. 9, 42–43, 73, 128, 194, 339, no. 13, ill. pp. 128–29 (color, overall and detail), call it "among the most successful and original pictures of Post's second phase".

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 532–34, no. 137, colorpl. 137, fig. 121 (color detail).

Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), pp. 22, 62, fig. 72 (color).

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