Flemish school; second third of the 17th century."Young African boy".Oil on copper.With repainting and restorations.Regency style frame of the XVIIIth century, with damages.Measurements: 10 x 9 cm; 26,5 x 26,5 cm (frame).In the 17th century ethnographic subjects were frequent in Dutch colonial painting. The so-called "type paintings" were sent to the metropolis as traces of the different races that inhabited the New World, as well as their diverse ways of life. Undoubtedly, the South American colonies represented an exotic multicultural panorama that was received with great curiosity in the Europe of Cartesian empiricism. Between 1637 and 1644, Prince Johan Maurits established himself as governor of the province of Nieuw Holland, founded in February 1630 by the Dutch West Indiapany in the regionprising the present-day cities of Recife and Olinda (and the island of Antonio Vaz) in northeastern Brazil. Returning to the interest in colonial life in Europe, it is not surprising that this cultured ruler was quick to build two palaces with botanical gardens and several zoos. He also arranged for scholars, scientists and artists to travel to his peculiar Dutch stronghold to study different aspects of Dutch culture. Among the artists in the Dutch prince's retinue were several painters such as Frans Post (c.1612-1665), whose landscapes are the first in situ depictions of the American lands, and Albert Eckhour (c.1610-1665), who was the first artist to depict the African inhabitants of northeastern Brazil. They were brought to Brazil as slaves from the area between the Gulf of Guinea and the Congo. A series of twelve large still lifes painted by Eckbout,bining fruits and vegetables from the Old and New World, can be found in the National Museum in Copenhagen. For art historian Rebecca Parker, this symbolises the desired peaceful convergence of cultures. Twelve 'ethnographic portraits' of the different racial 'types' found in Brazil, including those in which miscegenation is evident, are kept in the same museum. Although it is possible that these paintings were executed in Holland on the artist's return from his trip to the colonies, it is clear that they are the product of observation in situ.Aplete ethnographic study in which male and female figures and even, in some cases, their children are depicted with great dignity. Children very similar to the small portrait presented here, which is undoubtedly an unprecedented documentary source of mutual interest between the Old and New Worlds.Dimensions: 10 x 9 cm; 26.5 x 26.5 cm (frame).