Frans Post

1612 – 1680

Dutch landscape painter, born in Leiden and active mainly in Haarlem. In 1637-44 he was a member of the Dutch West India Company's voyage of colonization to Brazil and became the first European to paint landscapes in the New World. He observed the unfamiliar flora and fauna with an appropriate freshness, creating scenes of remarkable vividness and charm, and he continued to paint Brazilian landscapes after his return to the Netherlands (indeed he is not known to have painted any other type of picture). Because of his "naive" style, he has been called the Douanier Rousseau of the 17th century, and he was virtually forgotten or regarded as a curiosity until the 20th century. Examples of his fairly rare work are in the Louvre, the National Gallery of Ireland, and Ham House, London. His brother Pieter (1608-69) was one of the outstanding Dutch architects of the 17th century (the Huis ten Bosch near The Hague is his most famous work) and also occasionally painted.

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