THE SUGAR MILL

THE SUGAR MILL
signed lower center F.POST
oil on panel
15 1/2 by 25 1/4 in.; 39.4 by 64.1 cm.

Sotheby's
Old Master Paintings, European Sculpture & Antiquities
New York | 04 Jun 2009, 02:00 PM | N08560

LOT 44
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF LÚCIA MOREIRA SALLES
FRANS JANSZ. POST
HAARLEM CIRCA 1612 - 1680
ESTIMATE 300,000-500,000 USD
Lot Sold: 1,706,500 USD

PROVENANCE
With Bernard Houthakker, Amsterdam, 1933-35;
Private collection, Pernambuco, Brazil;
A.C. Cavalcanti, Rio de Janairo, 1937;
Dr. Caio de Lima Cavalcanti, Rio de Janairo, 1942;
Mário Pimenta Camargo, Sao Paulo, 1971;
Sale, London, Christie's, 11 December 1984, lot 67;
Walther Moreira Salles, New York, 1984;
Thence by inheritence to his wife, Lúcia Moreira Salles, New York.
EXHIBITED
Rio de Janeiro, Museu Nacional de Belas Artes, Frans Post, 1942, no. 16;
Sao Paulo, Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, Frans Post (1612-1680). Obras de coleçoes paulistas, 1973.
LITERATURE
J. de Sousa-Leao, Frans Post. Seus quadros brasileiros, Rio de Janeiro, 1937, p. 25, fig. 24;
R.C. Smith, "The Brazilian Landscapes of Frans Post," in The Art Quarterly, 1, no. 4, Autumn 1938, p. 265, no. 33;
J. de Sousa-Leao, Frans Post, Rio de Janeiro 1948, p. 101, no. 69;
A. Guimaraes, "Na Holanda com Frans Post," in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, 335, 1957, p.
179f, no. 81;
E. Larsen, Frans Post: Interprète du Brésil, Amsterdam 1962, p.189, no. 27;
J. de Sousa-Leao, Frans Post: 1612-1618, Amsterdam 1973, p. 105, no. 70, reproduced p. 104;
P. Corrêa do Lago, Frans Post: 1612-1680, Milan 2007, p. 282, no. 107, reproduced in color.
CATALOGUE NOTE
The present painting depicts a Brazilian sugar mill and plantation house set in a lush tropical landscape. Paintings such as this by the Dutch artist Frans Post both satisfied and helped to feed the growing seventeenth century European curiosity about the New World and the exotic peoples, plants, and animals that inhabited Holland's distant colonies.
Frans Post was one of the first European artists to travel to the New World. He was hired by Prince Johan Maurits to travel with him and a team of scientists and artists to document the newly acquired Dutch possessions in Brazil. From 1637 until 1644, the young Post traveled and worked there, making both sketches and fully developed paintings of the local topography. Eighteen such paintings, all of approximately the same size, were presented to the French King Louis XIV by Prince Johan Maurits in 1679; however, only seven of the original eighteen canvases are still known today. Although there is a paucity of works dating from his Brazilian sojourn, Post produced many views of the New World upon his return to Haarlem. Indeed, Post continued to produce images of Brazil until his death in 1680.
Painted almost twenty years after Post returned to Europe, this composition blends both real examples of Brazilian flora and fauna and imaginary landscape elements. Four prominent trees, including coconut, palm, and papaya, fill the left hand portion of the panel, while an exotic snake, armadillo, and other New World creatures wander in the thick growing vegetation that spreads from left to right across the foreground of the composition. The dramatic gestures of a group of natives in the right foreground draw our eyes back into the composition along a diagonal path that leads to a hut and raised platform on which laborers appear to be drying sugarcane. The right middle ground of the composition is dominated by the prominent white plantation house that sits on top of a hill. The mill, complete with thatched roof, water wheel, and a number of workers occupies the space below the house. A panoramic landscape is visible beyond. The jewel-like blue tone of the sky and loose, fluid brushstrokes are characteristic of Post's style in this later phase of his career, and the imagined composition as a whole makes this a type of New World capriccio, with the artist blending his memories of Brazil with his clients' desire to own a bit of the exotic locale for themselves.