On May 21, Sotheby’s New York hosted an auction replete with stunning paintings by Old Masters. Drawn from the sweeping collection of the late Wall Street banker Thomas Saunders and his wife Jordan, the auction encompassed everything from Adriaen Coorte’s charming still-life of a bowl of strawberries to a Frans Hall painting of a boy playing the violin. But there was one lot in particular that stood out more than others: a landscape by the Dutch artist Frans Post, which was originally recovered from a barn attic.
Titled View of Olinda, Brazil, with Ruins of the Jesuit Church, the 1666 painting boasts a sprawling provenance, filtering through Parisian collections throughout the 18th century before being bought in the 19th century by the dealer Charles Simon. Afterward, View of Olinda wound up in a private collection in Connecticut, where it eventually, and quite inexplicably, found a home in the attic of a barn. It was only in 1998 that George Wachter, chairman and co-worldwide head of Old Master paintings at Sotheby’s, first encountered the painting.
“It was filthy, black, dirty,” Wachter told Robb Report. “You could hardly see it.”
Even so, Wachter decided to reach out to the Saunders couple and ultimately campaigned for its purchase, all because he had a hunch that it was “a killer.” When Nancy Krieg, a premier conservator of Dutch and Flemish paintings, was tasked with restoring it, Post’s landscape slowly emerged.
“It became blue and white, and it was just incredible,” Wachter explained. “There was a little anteater in the corner, and all these animals running around, and all the different kinds of figures.”
View of Olinda is a remarkable painting, but not just because it reveals Post’s exceptional command over color, light, and realism. Unlike many of his 17th-century contemporaries, Post was one of the first European artists to travel to and paint from New World landscapes, including Brazil, which was, at that time, a Dutch colony. The artist created many compositions inspired by his Brazilian surroundings, mostly derived from memory or preliminary sketches, although they were mostly on the smaller side. View of Olinda, on the other hand, is 23 ¾ by 35 ⅝ inches.
“This was his calling card, these views of Brazil,” David Pollack, SVP and head of Old Master paintings at Sotheby’s, told Robb Report. “To have something on this scale certainly ranks [View of Olinda] in the top tier, no doubt.”
These were certainly contributing factors to the painting’s success at auction. View of Olinda was sold for an astounding $6 million ($7.3 million with fees), a record price for Post. Before now, the artist’s previous record stood at $4.5 million, snagged at a different Sotheby’s auction in 1997.
To learn more about this recent auction, visit the Sotheby’s website.
Frans Post’s 1666 painting View of Olinda, Brazil was found in a barn attic in the 1990s and recently sold for over $7 million at a Sotheby’s auction.
Portrait of Frans Post, ca. 1655. (Photo: Scholars Resource, Public domain)
Unlike many of his 17th-century contemporaries, Post was one of the few European painters to travel to and be inspired by New World landscapes, including those in Brazil.
Frans Post, “View of Olinda, Brazil,” 1662. (Photo: Rijks Museum, Public domain)
Frans Post, “View of the Ruins of Olinda, Brazil,” 1665. (Photo: Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Public domain)
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Sources: A Long-Lost Frans Post Painting Was Found in a Barn. It Just Sold for Over $7 Million at Auction; Sotheby’s $51.8m Saunders collection falls short, but still breaks Old Masters record
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