Frans Post 1612-1680. Catalogue raisonné

The first to be published in over thirty years, this long-awaited catalogue raisonné covers the work of Frans Post (Haarlem 1612-Haarlem 1680), the first artist from the Old World to paint the landscape of the Americas on the basis of first-hand experience. Engaged by Prince Johan Maurits van Nassau as part of the Dutch West India Company's colonizing efforts in the Northeast of Brazil, the young artist remained in the province of Pernambuco from 1637 to 1644. He arrived here at the age of 24 and painted the seven canvases of extraordinary quality that were the subject of a recent exhibition at the Musée du Louvre in Paris (2005). These detailed and accurate records of what the young artist saw are the first landscapes of the New World painted in situ by a trained European artist, as well as outstandingly original landscape paintings. After his return to Holland, Post chose the Brazilian landscape as the exclusive theme of his work for more than 30 years, and over the past decades the other 148 known paintings that survive from his Dutch production have also been receiving the growing attention of collectors, scholars and museums worldwide. This book presents all of the 155 autograph paintings confirmed to date, along with 57 drawings and 35 prints. To complete their task, the authors were joined by four renowned international experts to establish the corpus of authentic works and their chronology. The portrait of Frans Post on the back cover is by his contemporary, Frans Hals.