Frans Post: paintings from the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts

Most likely produced between 1659 and 1669. On the canvas, there are many enslaved people, men and women, moving from the center to...

...the bottom right-hand corner of the canvas. They look like they're coming back from a day's work...

...as the sky has a dark blue hue at the end of a clear, sunny day. The floodplain region stands out. At the intersection of the floodplain and the sky, there is a panoramic view of the "city" and, possibly, the Capiberibe River.

The sky occupies almost two thirds of the canvas with a linearity that is only interrupted by a tree in the left-hand corner, which hides this portion. Before reaching the view of the city, there is a belt of vegetation.

It is possible that Mocambos was produced in 1659. On the canvas, we see a uniform sky, with a brownish tone, which harmonizes with the ground. The sky occupies half of the composition.

An immense expanse of green predominates in the other half of the work, and only shares the scene with a small space reserved for the reddish ground, where the characters are located.

They are a group of indigenous men, carrying hunting weapons, and women, surrounded by mocambos, very precarious dwellings, made of wood and far away from the mill structure, blending in with the forest to make capture difficult.

This painting is an important record of the dwellings and customs of some of Brazil's indigenous groups.

Most likely produced between 1659 and 1669, when Post had already left Brazil.

Here again, the sky fills more than half the screen, mixed with blue and white. This time, there are slight shades of gray in the upper foreground, hinting at bad weather.

We are closer to the town, with buildings that are represented in a larger size and with the characters in the foreground. They are all black enslaved men and women.

The vegetation is equally vast and varied, running along the left and...

...right of the frame.

It was most likely produced between 1659 and 1669, a period in which Post had already left Brazil. More than half of the screen, in its upper portion, is made up of a blue sky...

with many clouds characteristic of a day of good weather.

The foreground of the painting is permeated by the local vegetation, both on the right and...

...on the left...

which contrasts, due to its immensity, with the small size of the enslaved people, also in the foreground of the canvas. In the background is a representation of the city, with its typical rural buildings:

On the left, a large building that appears to be disused.

And on the right, a building that is closer to the workers than the rest of the city.

The enslaved are black and mixed-race men and women.

Most likely produced between 1659 and 1669. On the canvas, we see a very clear blue sky with few clouds taking up more than the top half of the canvas.

In the center of the canvas, in the closest shot to the viewer, there is a group of enslaved black men, women and a child. Post took care to represent the characters with different skin tones on this screen. Some with darker skin and others are mixed race.

Still in the center is another group of enslaved people, painted in smaller proportions, marking the idea of perspective in the work.

The vegetation occupies the left portion of the picture in the foreground, while the dry ground on which the characters walk, like on a road, harmonizes with the city's buildings, which have a certain levelness in color, all represented in white. 

The sea appears in the background, meeting the sky.

Most likely produced between 1659 and 1669, a period in which Post had a great predilection for paintings representing sugar mills, perhaps wanting to highlight the success of the West India Company and attract sugar traders to purchase his works.

The vast vegetation permeates the entire screen.

The enslaved are in the central portion of the work, in the foreground.
Men, women and a child, who is being led by the hand by an enslaved man, as he walks balancing a weighted object on his head.

The canvas shows some of the buildings that make up the mill. The sky maintains a balance with the rest of the landscape and brings a more orange tone, which recalls the presence of the sun illuminating the entire canvas, as well as the harmony with the brownish soil.

Here again, the sky takes up more than half of the canvas. A blue sky that, despite many clouds of varying types, denotes good weather and clarity, which contrasts with the darkness of the lower part of the work.

Post's choice of contrasts goes back to the resources of light and shadow so dear to Dutch painters.

Black enslaved people in the foreground, men and women, in a moment of rest and relaxation.

To the left, amidst the vast vegetation, are the ruins of a stone building.

The church is very close to the center of the painting.

To the right, small buildings that look like houses.

Once again, we have a sky that takes up two thirds of the composition of a clear day, with lots of clouds. In this canvas, Post is depicting many buildings that surround the work environment and the manor and slave residences of a plantation.

There are more distant dwellings that also make up the canvas. Near the center of the work, he depicts water, which is essential for the mill.

The vegetation has a brownish hue that is very similar to the color of the earth, and there is very little green in it.

Below, in the center, are the characters: black enslaved men and women - including one sitting - and a child. The scene suggests a late afternoon, due to the tones of the composition and the behavior of the enslaved people, who seem to be finishing the routine of a day's work.