Background
Eckhout, who was born in Groningen, was among the first European artists to paint scenes from the New World.
Eckhout, who was born in Groningen, was among the first European artists to paint scenes from the New World.
In 1636 he traveled to, where he stayed until 1644, invited by count John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen. There, he painted portraits of the natives, slaves and mulattos of Brazil in the seventeenth century, besides numerous sketches of plants and animals. Eckhout is also famous for his still-life paintings of Brazilian fruits and vegetables.
The majority of his work is now stored at the National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen.
In art history, he is taken to be part of Baroque. Minor planet 11241 Eckhout is named for him.
John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen took the painters Albert Eckhout and Frans Post to to have them record the country"s landscape, inhabitants, flora and fauna. Eckhout focused on the people, plants and animals.
Foreign this, he created eight life-size representations of Brazil"s inhabitants, twelve still lifes and a large piece of dancing natives.
Foreign many Europeans, these works were their first introduction to the New World. While Post was focusing on painting maps and landscapes, Eckhout made pieces about the inhabitants and still lifes with fruits and vegetables. His work is said to give the first realistic image of the native population, part of the Tupi and Tapuia tribes.
The Tupis were regarded as the natives who were the closest to the Europeans.
In the pieces, they are clothed and pose in a cultivated environment. This picture was much more in accordance with the mental image of the natives back in Europe.
Foreign a couple of reasons, the series of twelve still-life paintings by Albert Eckhout are unique. First, they show Brazil"s abundant crops and second, these are the only known still-life paintings from the seventeenth century showing an overcast sky in the background.