MASP

Born into a family of artists, Frans Post was a painter, draftsman, and printmaker. He arrived in Brazil in 1637, at the age of 25, as a member of the entourage of John Maurice of Nassau (1604-1679) during the Dutch occupation in Pernambuco (1630-54). He lived in Recife until 1644, a period during which he produced eighteen landscapes, though the whereabouts of only seven of them is known today. This “first phase” of his is characterized by depictions of the Brazilian landscapes faithful to reality, though with few details in the composition. After his return to Holland, his “second phase” began, with paintings of the Brazilian landscape based on sketches and drawings he had made during his sojourn in Brazil. His “third phase,” spanning from 1660 to 1670, is considered his most important, as this was when Post produced paintings based on elements of nature found in the Brazilian Northeast, but reorganizing them according to his imagination. In Landscape with Anteater (c. 1660) the animal appears in the foreground, in the lower part of the canvas, accompanied by a frog and an armadillo — typical of the Brazilian fauna. The retinue, consisting of a white couple accompanied by slaves, including both children and adults, is resting on their way to a small group of houses. The dark trees along the edges in the foreground seem to frame a landscape that gradually fades, gaining blue tones beyond the river and the hills. This image included a didactic aim, for Europeans to learn about aspects of the colony by means of the picture.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015

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