Tupi woman

http://data.europeana.eu/agent/21530 · 1641

Tupi woman holding a child, with a basket on her head. The woman is wearing a skirt of European fabric and wears her hair short in front with two long braids bound with a cord. On her right arm she carries a water calabash and in the basket on her head calabashes and a hammock. Next to her is a banana tree and in the back a masters house on a rural plantation with fruit trees and groups of workers.The portrait is part of a large collection of a total of 8 portraits, a dancing scene and 12 still life of tropical fruits and vegetables, which aimed to provide a comprehensive picture of the inhabitants and crops of Dutch Brazil.The paintings were presented as gift in 1654 to the Danish King Frederik III by Johan Maurits (1604-1679), Count of Nassau-Siegen and Governor-general of the Dutch colony in Brazil. The collection became part of the Royal Danish Kunstkammer prior to 1674 and is today part of the Ethnographic Collections at the National Museum of Denmark.