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Landscape with Ruins in Olinda
Frans Post (Dutch, 1612–1680)
1663
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
22.9 x 29.2 cm (9 x 11 1/2 in.)
Framed: 34.3 x 40.3 cm (13 1/2 x 15 7/8 in.)
Framed: 34.3 x 40.3 cm (13 1/2 x 15 7/8 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession Number2021.707
OUT ON LOAN
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Frans Post traveled to Brazil to accompany Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, who ruled the Dutch colony there from 1637 to 1644. Long after Post returned to the Netherlands in 1644, he continued to paint idyllic pictures of the Brazilian countryside. In this view of a sugar plantation, three figures engage in conversation. The two women are dressed finely, at odds with the coarse cloth that most enslaved people were forced to wear. The surrounding landscape features well-kept cabins, picturesque ruins, a small chapel, and, in the distance, a grand plantation house.
Unlike seventeenth-century texts that describe the brutality of plantation slavery, Post’s paintings emphasize order, domesticity, and tranquility. Such idealized visions were designed to please consumers in the Netherlands.
Unlike seventeenth-century texts that describe the brutality of plantation slavery, Post’s paintings emphasize order, domesticity, and tranquility. Such idealized visions were designed to please consumers in the Netherlands.
InscriptionsSigned and dated lower left: F. Post. 1663
Provenance18th century, private collection, Switzerland; until 2007, by descent within the family; July 4, 2007, anonymous ("Property of a Gentleman") sale, Sotheby’s, London, lot 32. 2007, sold by Johnny Van Haeften Ltd., London to Thomas Kaplan, New York [see note 1]. 2013, Johnny Van Haeften Ltd.; 2014, sold by Johnny Van Haeften Ltd. to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA [see note 2]; 2021, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 15, 2021)
NOTES:
[1] Buyer identified by Frederik J. Duparc in Dutch and Flemish Masterworks: From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (Boston, 2020), p. 82.
[2] According to Duparc 2020 (see above, note 1), p. 82.
NOTES:
[1] Buyer identified by Frederik J. Duparc in Dutch and Flemish Masterworks: From the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (Boston, 2020), p. 82.
[2] According to Duparc 2020 (see above, note 1), p. 82.