POST, Frans (Haarlem, c. 1612 – Haarlem, 1680)
The son of the Haarlem glass painter Jan Jansz. Post (d. 1614), and the brother of the painter and architect Pieter Post (1608–1669), Frans Post was born about 1612 in Haarlem. Together with the animal and figure painter, Albert Eckhout (c. 1610–1665), he joined the expedition of Prince Jan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen to Brazil. They embarked on their journey on 25 October 1636 and arrived at Recife in January of 1637. A sketchbook that Post made with nineteen views of the voyage and of Brazil is preserved in the Scheepvaart Museum, Amsterdam. Of the many paintings of Brazil’s terrain, flora and fauna that Post executed for the Prince, only six paintings dated to the years of his stay in the New World (1637–1640) survive. The artist returned to Haarlem in 1644 and spent the rest of his life painting increasingly decorative views of Brazil. In 1644 and 1650 the stadtholder Frederik Hendrik paid large sums for Post’s West Indian landscapes. Post also designed the illustrations for Caspar van Baerle’s description of Brazil, Rerum per octennium in Brasilia, published in Amsterdam in 1647. He joined the Haarlem guild in 1646 and served as a vinder in 1656/57 and penningmeester in 1658. On 27 March 1650, he married Jannetje Bogaert, the daughter of a schoolmaster, in Zandvoort. The couple had five children. Post joined the Reformed Church on 9 October 1654. He was buried in Haarlem’s Grote Kerk on 17 February 1680. Post was a painter, draughtman and etcher of Brazilian landscapes filled with exotic buildings, natives, plants and animals. His oeuvre includes dated works from virtually every year between and including 1647 and 1670.
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