Gillis Peeters I (Antwerp 1612-1653)

Though it was long believed that Gillis Peeters based his rare views of Brazil entirely on the works of artists like Frans Post, Dr. Eric Larsen recently posited that the artist may actually have travelled to the colony around 1637 and again in 1640/44 (loc. cit.). Dr. Larsen believed the present view to be taken from the region of Maranhao in northeastern Brazil and suggested that the indigenous figures are Tapuyas. He further identified the man-of-war as that of the Amsterdam, the largest ship of its type in the service of the Dutch West India Company. According to Larsen, the painting was probably executed circa 1645/50, a period in which the silvery tonality of Peeters' paintings suggests the prevailing influence of the Dutch marine painter, Simon de Vlieger.