MASP

From a family of artists, Frans Post was a painter, draftsman and printmaker. He arrived in Brazil in 1637, at the age of 25, as a member of John Maurice of Nassau’s (1604–1679) entourage during the Dutch occupation in Pernambuco (1630–1654). He lived in Recife until 1644, a period in which he produced eighteen landscapes, though the whereabouts of only seven of them are known today. He was, therefore, the first European painter to depict the Brazilian landscape based on direct observation. After his return to the Netherlands, Post continued to produce paintings on Brazilian themes based on sketches and drawings made during his sojourn. MASP possesses five works by the artist, including Paisagem com jiboia. In the scene, the snake is seen at the right, as though it were stalking a prey; the roofless church recalls the destruction of the Catholic religious buildings of the city by the Dutch. This painting is one of the best examples of Post’s painstaking care in portraying aspects of colonial life as well as Brazilian flora and fauna.

— MASP Curatorial Team, 2015

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By Luciano Migliaccio
In a letter of May 27, 1959 (Larsen, 1962, p. 192), Arne Bruun Rasmussen, of a Copenhagen auction house, stated that Langrave Erik Holstein (1748-1796) had probably acquired the painting at the estate auction of G. H. M. Morell (1710-1771), himself an art dealer and conservator of the royal Danish Collection. The catalogue of the estate sale, held in 1773, features a painting titled Landscape of Western India the measures of which are an identical match to those of the Masp’s canvas. Taking for basis these same measurements, Larsen supposed that Landscape with a Boa Constrictor could be one of a set of “Brazilian” paintings by Post which Maurits of Nassau presented to Louis XIV (1678). However, there is no positive evidence of the painting’s passage in the Royal French Collections. Here the boa constrictor, one of the largest snakes found in Brazil, is depicted on the bottom right corner of the painting, awaiting its prey. The tileless church roof on the left is a reference to the destruction of Catholic religious buildings by the Dutch invaders. As pointed out by Sousa Leão (1973, p. 119) this picture is one of the best Brazilian landscapes by Post.

— Luciano Migliaccio, 1998

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