Johann Moritz Rugendas

Moritz Rugendas;CalotypebyFranz Hanfstaengl(before 1850).

Johann Moritz Rugendas(29 March 1802 – 29 May 1858) was a German painter, famous in the first half of the 19th century for his works depictinglandscapesandethnographicsubjects in several countries in the Americas. Rugendas is considered "by far the most varied and important of the European artists to visit Latin America."He was influenced byAlexander von Humboldt.

Biography

The huaso and the washerwoman

Rugendas was born inAugsburg,then aFree imperial cityin theHoly Roman Empire,now (Germany), into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of Augsburg (he was a great grandson ofGeorg Philipp Rugendas,1666–1742, a celebrated painter of battles).He first studied drawing and engraving with his father, Johann Lorenz Rugendas II (1775–1826). From 1815-17, he studied withAlbrecht Adam(1786–1862), and later in the Academy de Arts ofMunich,with Lorenzo Quaglio II (1793–1869). When Rugendas was born, Augsburg was aFree Imperial Cityof theHoly Roman Empire.After theNapoleonic Wars,in 1806 it had the status of a city in the newly createdKingdom of Bavaria.

The church of Andacollo.

Rugendas was inspired by the artistic work ofThomas Ender(1793–1875) and the travel accounts in the tropics byJohann Baptist von Spix(1781–1826) andCarl von Martius(1794–1868) in the course of theAustrian Brazil Expedition,to joinBaron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition to Brazil as an illustrator. Langsdorff was the consul-general of theRussian Empirein Brazil and had a plantation "Mandioca" in the northern region ofRio de Janeiro.In March 1822, they reached Brazil to Rio in the company of scientistsÉdouard Ménétries(1802-1861),Ludwig Riedel(1761-1861), Christian Hasse andNester Rubtsov(1799-1874).

As illustrator, Rugendas visited theSerra da Mantiqueiraand the historical towns ofBarbacena,São João del Rei,Mariana,Ouro Preto,Caeté,SabaráandSanta Luzia.Just before the fluvial phase of the expedition started (a fateful journey to theAmazon), he became alienated from von Langsdorff and left the expedition. He was replaced by the artistsAdrien TaunayandHércules Florence.But Rugendas continued to live on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces ofMinas GeraisandRio de Janeiro.He also visited the coastal provinces ofBahiaandPernambucoon his journey back to Europe. He produced mostly drawings andwatercolors.

Feast of San Juan in Amancaes. Lima, 1843.

On his return to Europe between 1825 and 1828, Rugendas lived successively in Paris,AugsburgandMunich,with the aim of learning new art techniques, such asoil painting.There, he published from 1827 to 1835, with the help ofVictor Aimé Huber,his monumental bookVoyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil(Picturesque Voyage to Brazil), with more than 500 illustrations. It was considered one of the most important documents about Brazil in the 19th century.

Battle of Maipu

He spent time studying in Italy. Inspired by explorer and naturalist,Alexander Humboldt(1769–1859), Rugendas sought financial support for a much more ambitious project of recording pictorially the life and nature of Latin America. In his word, it would be "an endeavor to truly become the illustrator of life in theNew World".In 1831 he traveled first toHaiti,and then toMexico.In Mexico, he did drawings and watercolors ofMorelia,Teotihuacan,Xochimilco,andCuernavaca.He also began to practice oil painting, with excellent results. After becoming involved in a failed coup in 1834 against Mexico's president,Anastasio Bustamante,Rugendas was incarcerated and expelled from the country.

From 1834 to 1844 he travelled toChile,Argentina,Uruguay,Peru andBolivia,and finally returned in 1845 toRio de Janeiro.Well-accepted and feted by the court ofEmperor Dom Pedro IIof Brazil, he executedportraitsof several members of the royal court and participated in an artistic exposition. At the age of 44, in 1846, Rugendas departed for Europe.

Depicting black people in Brazil

Enterro de um Negro.Lithograph by Johann Moritz Rugendas.

From 1822 to 1825, as part of the Langsdorff expedition, Rugendas depicted black people living in Brazil. Along with other ethnographic artists who worked in Brazil, such asJean-Batiste Debret,andFrançois-August Biard,Rugendas is part of the tropical romanticism. This movement challenged the dichotomy between nature and civilization and considered places such as colonial Brazil to be a harmonious environment of racial mixing.

Tropical romanticism was one of the elements that influenced Rugendas's representations of black people. According to Freitas, Rugendas illustrated black people of varied origins. This type of illustration details the physical characteristics of black men and women by focusing on hairstyles, adornments, marks and scars, and types of nose, lips, and eyes, demonstrating the ethnographic purpose of these drawings. In the samelithograph,the artist depicts four or five busts of men and women to compare differences and similarities among nations of origin, but also to identify different degrees of civilization. He identified more savage people by depicting them with skin marks and deformities, and normally without clothes.On the other hand, criollos were represented wearing clothes and jewelry, as if to mark a step forward toward civilization if compared with black Africans. Rugendas celebrated black people born in Brazil, saying they were more polished and benevolent than Africans.

Secondly, Rugendas depicted black people in scenes. These painted images presented activities of urban work, such as street commerce, water transportation, and laundry. The main focus was in the activity and the landscape rather than in detailing variation among blacks of different origins. For this reason, he portrayed a generic type of black in such scenes. Rugendas represented the work performed by black people as a civilizing element that allowed them to develop themselves and to have social mobility.

Familia de Agricultores.Lithograph by Johann Moritz Rugendas.

Influenced byAlexander von Humboldt's ideas, Rugendas considered environmental conditions to be determinant factors to human development. He believed that the lack of what he considered formal education and civilizing elements in Africa contributed to the inferiority of the African race. Humboldt was anabolitionist,and Rugendas similarly disapproved of the Brazilian slavery system. He supported a gradual and progressive emancipation.The historian Robert Slenes said that Rugendas;s political agenda that worked together with his ethnographic studies. To Slenes, the artist compromised with a conservative Christian reformism, typical of the abolitionist movement. Although Rugendas defended gradual emancipation, the artist also believed that Brazilian slavery represented a new, positive life for Africans, who got the chance to learn the Christian experience.In some images, for example theEnterro de um Negro na Bahia,Rugendas identified the dead body of a "black man with another corpse: the suffering Christ the ‘Savior’ honored by the city's name."There are other images where elements of Catholicism are present, such asMercado de Negros(a slave market with a church in the background) andFamilia de Agricultores,the latter one of the few images in which Rugendas portrays black people in private environments; they are slaves or servants to the white family.

Mercado de Negros.Lithograph by Johann Moritz Rugendas.

Petrônio Domingues says that the artistic work of foreigner painters and ethnographers in nineteenth-century Brazil had a strong influence on the development of the racial imaginary. The romantic view on slavery in Brazil as a civilizing influence, contributed to creation of the myth of racial democracy.Outside Brazil, the images Rugendas produced had relative success. He published a book with his travel log and a collection of one hundred pictures; it was calledViagem Pitoresca através do Brazil,in Portuguese;Voyage Pittoresque dans le Brésil,in French; andMalerische Reise in Brasilien,in German. During the nineteenth century, there was increased publication of travel books and the development of lithographs to illustrate them.Rugendas's images helped to spread the idea of racial harmony inside and outside Brazil.

Death

He died on 29 May 1858 inWeilheim an der Teck,Germany.King Maximilian IIofBavariahad acquired most of his works in exchange for a life pension. His paintingColumbus Taking Possession of the New World(1855) has been on view at theNeue Pinakothek,inMunich.

See also

• Ludwig Riedel
• Francis de Castelnau
• Sigismund Ernst Richard Krone
• Peter Claussen
• Jean-Batiste Debret
• François-August Biard

Further reading

• Ades, Dawn,Art in Latin America.1989.
• Diener, P.:Rugendas, 1802–1858.Wissner; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Augsburg and Santiago de Chile, 1997. A massive catalogue of works in Spanish and Portuguese.
• Diener, P.; COSTA, M. de F. (org.).Rugendas e o Brasil. Obra completa.Rio de Janeiro: Editora Capivara, 2012.
• Lemos, Carlos.The Art of Brazil1983.
• Miles, Mary Jo. "Johann Moritz Rugendas" inEncyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture,vol. 4, p. 619. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1996.
• Milla Batres, Carlos.Juan Mauricio Rugendas: El Perú Romántico del siglo XIX.Lima: Milla Batres 1975.
• Juan Mauricio Rugendas en Mexico (1831–1834): un pintor en la senda de Alejandro de Humboldt; exposición del Instituto Ibero-Americano, Patrimonio Cultural Prusiano, Berlin.Berlin: Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut, 2002.