Frans Jansz. Post

Emile Wolf, New York, 1967;
Thence by descent to present owners.

Montreal, Musée des Beaux-Arts, The Painter and the New World: a survey of painting from 1564 to 1867 marking the founding of Canadian Confederation, 9 June-30 July, 1967, no. 8;
Norfolk, Chrysler Museum; Providence, Rhode Island Shchool of Design; Tampa, The Tampa Museum, The discovery of the everyday : seventeenth century Dutch paintings from the Wolf Collection, September 1982-21 August 1983, no. 39.

Columbia Lippincott Gazetter of the World, 1952, p. 1455;
The Painter and the New World: a survey of painting from 1564 to 1867 marking the founding of Canadian Confederation, exhibition catalogue, Montreal 1967, cat. no. 8, reproduced;
J. de Sousa-Leão, Frans Post-1612-1680, Amsterdam 1973, p. 122, cat. no. 100, reproduced;
The discovery of the everyday: seventeenth century Dutch paintings from the Wolf Collection, exhibition catalogue, Norfolk 1982, cat. no. 39, reproduced;
P. Corrêa do Lago and B. Corrêa do Lago , Frans Post: 1612-1680, Milan 2007, p. 315, cat. no. 134, reproduced. 

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored and should be hung as is. The canvas has been lined. The paint layer is clean, varnished and retouched. There has probably been a slight softening of some of the color in the pathways in the foreground but the painting looks well nonetheless. No retouches are visible to the naked eye, which is a credit to the restorer, but under ultraviolet light numerous small, accurate retouches are visible and have been applied throughout the painting addressing cracking and abrasion. The retouching has been faithful and no liberties were taken. The painting should be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Frans Post's career is a mystery prior to his historic voyage to Brazil as part of the retinue of Prince Johann Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, which set sail on 25 October 1636. Post was hired by the Dutch to depict their newly acquired territory, and in doing so became the first professional artist to bring back with him images of the New World.¹ There he stayed until 1644, and during his time in Brazil executed no less than eighteen canvases, only seven of which are known to have survived: four are in the Louvre, Paris, one in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, one in the Patricia Phelps de Cisneros Collection, Caracas, and one in the Instituto Ricardo Brennand, Recife. All seven of these surviving works from Post's original journey are dated between 1637-1640.²

Executed some twenty years after his return from Brazil, the present work belongs to what is considered the beginning of Post's final, or fourth, phase of painting. Thirty nine works have been identified as belonging to this moment in Post's career, which spanned the last decade of his life, none of which are dated, making a sound chronology of these later works exceedingly difficult. What is certain though, is that by this point in his career Post had become extremely sought after for his ability to depict scenes of the New World, and his newly wealthy Dutch clients sought compositions which could be associated with Holland's global reach and economic power. Furthermore, these scenes satisfied a growing taste for "exotic" pictures, thus making Post's views of natives and other tropical elements all the more desirable. What appears apparent from these later works is that Post was less concerned with extremely accurate topographical recreations of Brazil, but rather more preoccupied with providing his clientele works which displayed a high level of exoticism.

Though datable to the beginning of his fourth phase, as evidenced by the format of the houses in the background on the left, this picture contains many of the intricate elements which are the hallmark of Post's finest works from the 1660's. The lush vegetation is rendered with highly refined, almost miniaturist detail, and the inclusion of numerous figures in the foreground is a component which is lacking from his very final works. Compositionally, the repoussoir device at right, which frames the landscape and leads the viewer's eye into the picture, is entirely typical of Post's capricci from his later output. In addition, the scene is arranged as if looking down from an elevated vantage point, thus providing the viewer full visual access to not only the detailed foreground elements, but also the sweeping panorama beyond.

We are grateful Pedro and Bia Corrêa do Lago for their assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

 

1. see Literature, Corrêa do Lago 2007, p. 31.
2.  The entire group of original paintings from Post's journey were given by the Prince of Nassau to Louis XIV in 1679. They were exhibited in the Grande Galerie de Versailles and remained in the possession of the French until the mid-eighteenth century.