Pieter Post – The Frits Lugt Collection 6331. View of the Bleaching Fields at Haarlem (1631)
Materials: oil on panel. Dimensions: 43.7 x 61.5 cm. Acquisition date: 1950. Nr.: 6331. Source: http://www.fondationcustodia.fr/ununiversintime/plaatjes/34_post_6331.jpg. I have changed the contrast of the original photo.
Pieter Post – Mauritshuis 970. Title: Duinlandschap met een hooischelf/Dune landscape with haystack (1633)
Materials: oil on panel. Dimensions: 53.3 x 79.5 cm. Source: geheugenvannederland.nl/?/en/items/MAU01:0970/
This painting shows a farmyard at the edge of the dunes: a haystack, a barn, some cattle and farmers – there is not much more to it. Even though simplicity is typical of early Dutch landscapes of the 17th century, this picture is exceptionally plain. The lack of both a foreground and a distant prospect means that the picture has little depth. It makes a remarkably unaffected impression, which actually strikes one as rather modern.
The haystack is also strange: not the motif in itself, because it occurs frequently in Dutch landscapes, but its prominent position. Its roof has been lowered, leaving just enough room below it to park a couple of carts. The poles of this ingenious construction stick out above everything.
Meanwhile, the creatures that populate this rather desolate landscape simply go about their daily activities. A shepherd tends his flock; a man and woman shift some hay. The cows – very small and rendered with fine brushstrokes – walk towards the barn (http://www.mauritshuis.nl/index.aspx?FilterId=988&ChapterId=2346&ContentId=17541).
Pieter Post – Frans Hals Museum. OS 95-86. The departure of Abraham and Lot (c. 1630)
Materials: oil on canvas. Dimensions: 63 x 62.5 cm. Nr.: Inv.no. OS 95-86 Sursa: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b8/Pieter-post-landscape.jpg
