Village of Olinda, Brazil
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Village of Olinda, Brazil
1650 - 167017th
32.5 in. x 51.5 in. (82.55 cm x 130.81 cm)
Frans Jansz. Post, (ca. 1612–1680)
User Text 1 This painting represents the region of Olinda, Brazil, a historic center of sugarcane production. In 1636, the artist Frans Post traveled to the Dutch colony in northeast Brazil in the entourage of the governor Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen. While there, he documented the people, plants, animals, and sugar production that informed his drawings and paintings of Brazil. When Europeans colonized the Americas they immediately began building infrastructure to cultivate and extract natural resources for profit. They built large-scale plantations throughout the Americas to grow and prepare crops for export including sugarcane, tobacco, and rice. Colonizers enslaved, transported, and forced Africans to labor on these plantations. Post did not represent the violence of slavery or the dangers of sugarcane production. Here, he depicts enslaved Africans socializing rather than laboring. Early paintings of the Americas, like this one, elided the subjugation of non-European peoples with that of the American wilderness and celebrated both.
Creation Place:
Europe, Netherlands
Medium and Support:
Oil on canvas
Credit Line:
Gift of Charles R. Crane
Accession Number:
13.1.16
The Village of Olinda, Brazil by Dutch artist Franz Jansz. Post (13.1.16) represents an effort of colonial governments to document new lands. Post was in northern Brazil from 1637 to 1644 to make a pictorial record of the landscape and people under Dutch control. The center of the painting is the house of the Portuguese and opposite it, the slave quarters; at the extreme left is the remains of the convent of the Franciscan Friars. Post interpreted the exoticism of Brazil with flair and typical Dutch thoroughness.
Old didactic text: Painted as a topographical account of a foreign, exotic land, this landscape painting depicts the successful efforts of the Dutch Republic to colonize Brazil during the seventeenth century. With the rise of scientific interest in the natural world, artists accompanied expeditions in order to make accurate visual records of the land and its inhabitants, as well as the exotic plant and animal life they found there. Born into a family of artists, Frans Jansz. (Dutch for “son of Jan”) Post worked in the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. In 1636, he traveled to the Dutch colony of northeast Brazil in the entourage of its governor, Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen. The detailed depiction of plants and animals in this picture, including an anteater at right, serves as a foreground framing device, or repoussoir, a compositional element typically used by artists of an earlier generation. Post employs this technique for the purpose of precise naturalistic description. The plants have all been identified by botanists. Post is known to have executed only seven paintings during his stay in Brazil, which lasted until 1644. The great majority of his over one hundred landscapes of Brazil, however, were painted from memory back in his studio in Haarlem with the aid of the many sketches executed by the artist on site. This evocative landscape is one of these.
(Didactic text for online updated 11/9/23 by JYB and JW)
Old didactic text: Painted as a topographical account of a foreign, exotic land, this landscape painting depicts the successful efforts of the Dutch Republic to colonize Brazil during the seventeenth century. With the rise of scientific interest in the natural world, artists accompanied expeditions in order to make accurate visual records of the land and its inhabitants, as well as the exotic plant and animal life they found there. Born into a family of artists, Frans Jansz. (Dutch for “son of Jan”) Post worked in the tradition of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting. In 1636, he traveled to the Dutch colony of northeast Brazil in the entourage of its governor, Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen. The detailed depiction of plants and animals in this picture, including an anteater at right, serves as a foreground framing device, or repoussoir, a compositional element typically used by artists of an earlier generation. Post employs this technique for the purpose of precise naturalistic description. The plants have all been identified by botanists. Post is known to have executed only seven paintings during his stay in Brazil, which lasted until 1644. The great majority of his over one hundred landscapes of Brazil, however, were painted from memory back in his studio in Haarlem with the aid of the many sketches executed by the artist on site. This evocative landscape is one of these.
(Didactic text for online updated 11/9/23 by JYB and JW)
Current Location:
Chazen : 135 : Screen41 : R
Additional Images
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions:
- Collection of Paintings Owned by Paul S. Reinsch , 9/26/1912 - 10/24/1912
- Age of the Marvelous, The Dartmouth College , 9/21/1991 - 1/3/1993
- Resource & Ruin: Wisconsin’s Enduring Landscape Chazen Museum of Art , 12/19/2022 - 3/26/2023
Dimensions
- Overall Dimensions: 32.5 in. x 51.5 in. (82.55 cm x 130.81 cm)
- frame Dimensions: in. (cm) Measured by Collins, Brandi
Bibliography List
This object has the following bibliographic references:
-
Blacksberg, Leslie Ann. "In Context: 'Village of Olinda, Brazil' by Frans Post." Elvehjem Museum of Art Bulletin/Biennial Report 1995-1997. Elvehjem Museum of Art (1998).
.
Elvehjem Museum of Art.
1998
Page Number: p. 83, Figure Number: no. 1 -
Levy, Carlos Roberto and Anton Rajer. "Frans Post's Village of Olinda: A Tropical Landscape of Dutch Colonial Brazil." Elvehjem Museum of Art Bulletin, 1995-1997. Elvehjem Museum of Art (1997): 71-82.
.
Elvehjem Museum of Art.
1997
Page Number: pp. 71-82 -
Rogers, Millard F., Jr. "Paintings at the Elvehjem Art Center, University of Wisconsin." The Magazine Antiques. Vol. CVIII, No. 6, December (1975).
.
The Magazine Antiques.
1975
Page Number: pp. 1147, 1150, Figure Number: fig. 2 -
Corrêa do Lago, Pedro and Bia. "Frans Post (1612-1680): Catalogue raisonné." Milan: 5 Continents Editions, 2007.
.
5 Continents Editions.
2007
Page Number: p. 251, Figure Number: no. 86 -
Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Handbook of the Collection." Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, 1990.
.
Elvehjem Museum of Art.
1990
Figure Number: no. 40 -
Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Bulletin/Biennial Report 1995-1997." Madison: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1998.
.
Elvehjem Museum of Art.
1998
Page Number: pp. 71, 83 -
.
Madison Art Association. "Collection of Paintings Owned by Paul S. Reinsch: Exhibition in the State Historical Library Building." Madison, WI: Madison Art Association, 1912.
.
Madison Art Association.
1912
Page Number: p. 5, Figure Number: no. 30
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