Albert Eckhout

Albert Eckhout (c.1610–1665) was a Dutch portrait and still life painter. Eckhout, the son of Albert Eckhourt and Marryen Roeleffs, was born in Groningen, but his training as an artist and early career are unknown. A majority of the works attributed to him are unsigned. He was among the first European artists to paint scenes from the New World. He was in the entourage of the Dutch governor-general of Brazil, Johan Maurits, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, who took him and fellow painter Frans Post to Dutch Brazil to have them record the country's landscape, inhabitants, flora and fauna. Eckhout is also famous for his still-life paintings of Brazilian fruits and vegetables. His paintings were intended for decoration in a domestic context.

Work Tapuyan cannibal woman with a human hand in her hand and foot in her basket, standing under a tree that is likely Cassia grandis, 1641. Eckhout focused on the people, plants and animals of the region when arriving in Dutch Brazil. He painted eight life-size ethnographic representations of Brazil's inhabitants, twelve still lifes, and a large piece of dancing indigenous people. These ethnographic works, done between 1641 and 1643 for Maurits, were subsequently gifted to Maurits's cousin, King Frederick III of Denmark, and they remain in Copenhagen to this day. His work is said to be the first realistic images of the Tupi and Tapuya tribes of the native population of Brazil. Alexander von Humboldt saw the paintings in 1827, as did Brazilian Emperor Dom Pedro II in 1876, both of whom praised the works enthusiastically.

Tapuyas

When painting the Tapuya, his goal was to be as accurate as possible by including various plants in the background, as well as indigenous animals and reptiles in the foreground. One of his ethnographic works is a calmly composed Tupuyan woman, who holds a human hand and has a human leg in her basket, which reflects the European stereotype that indigenous Americans practiced cannibalism. These pictures were accordance with the stereotypical mental image Europeans had of indigenous Brazilians. When looking at Eckhout's image of the black man, the man's strength and virility are highlighted by his muscular appearance and the phallic form of the palm tree at his left.

In the painting, the woman stands with a direct glance and a playful expression as she engages the viewer's eyes. The lips are slightly turned up at the ends assuming that she will soon break into a more fuller inviting smile. She wears jewels in her necklace and matching earrings. These are complemented by her small green hat, which is decorated with pearls and a sprig of orange tree blossoms. Her simple white dress is accompanies this finery, although its plainness is relieved on the shoulders by epaulettes of embroidery. This image of the mameluca refers to the fertility of the colony and even to the highly intoxicating cashew fruit wine that is made every year by the ethnic group of the mameluca mother, Tupinamba.

Exhibition In 2002, through a major restoration campaign, all of the well known paintings by Eckhout, have been allowed to travel back to Brazil. This is the first time they were exhibited in the country where they were made since the early 1640s. The title of the exhibition was Albert Eckhourt volta ao Brasil 1644-2002 (Albert Eckhout Returns to Brazil). The show was presented at the Instituto Ricardo Brennand in Recife, a building that had been newly erected in the city where Maurits lived during the height of his career. Eight of the still life's in this exhibition were meant to be seen from a low viewpoint and were intended to be hung above the men and women. Though at this time no exhibition curator has ever thought of hanging the paintings as a decorative ensemble.

Gallery