Attributed to Albert Eckhout Groningen c.1610 - 1666

Baltimore, Baltimore Museum of Fine Arts, Old Master Drawings from a Private Collection, June 17 - September 7, 1986, as Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

Albert Eckhout is known primarily for his paintings and drawings of the native population and flora and fauna of Brazil.  He and his more famous contemporary Frans Post were among a group of artists who accompanied Johan Maurits, Count of Nassau-Siegen and governor of the Dutch colony in Brazil on a voyage there in 1637.  They returned in 1644 and Eckhout brought with him hundreds of drawings and oil sketches, which formed part of a scientific study of the region.

The present work would at first glance appear to have little to do with that excursion.  The boy depicted has medium brown hair, grayish eyes and a pink cheeks -- all suggesting a very Dutch sitter.  However, the first  lines of text on the verso appear to read:  1637 --------/ per cap*** vande companye op west indie/ credit.  1637 was the year Eckhout left for Brazil and he would have been associated with the West India Company, leading one to speculate that this might be the sketch of a boy who travelled with the expedition.

The present drawing had been listed in the Brandt collection as Albert Eckhout for some time, but at the time of the Baltimore exhibition the attribution was changed to the better known Gerbrandt van den Eeckhout, perhaps because of the inscription on the recto.  The style, however, has precious little to do with that of this Rembrandt pupil.  While it is difficult to compare this work with Eckhout's depictions of Brazilian natives, there are a number of strong similarities.  Despite the differences of age and race, the figures all have a similar facial structure, with a wide forehead and wide, flat cheeks tapering to a narrow chin:  see, for example, the Tupi Man or the Dance of the Tapuya, both in the National Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen (illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Albert Eckhout volta ao BraziI, Recife, Instituto Ricaido Brennen, et al., 2002-3, p.41 cat. 4 and pp. 46-47, cat. 9.)  The present work is also painted in the same thick, rather flat brushwork that is characteristic of Eckhout's work.

We are grateful to Prof. Seymour Slive for his help in cataloguing this work.