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An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by César Aira: book review



An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (2006) is about German landscape artist Johann Moritz Rugendas who travelled to Argentina in 1837.

Johann Moritz Rugendas (1802-1858) was advised by Alexander von Humboldt to visit Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. Argentine writer César Aira captures that time in this novel, a work of fiction from fact, using letters as his guide.

Rugendas travelled twice to Argentina: the first time in 1837 and the second time in 1847. This novel is about the first visit—the brief visit that was dramatically cut short by ‘a strange episode that would mark a turning point in his life.’

The Argentine landscape includes vast plains and pampas. Here Rugendas wants to be inspired to create a new form of art. He was a genre painter in the form of the physiognomy of nature, experimenting with oil sketches. 

First, he spent a month in the wine region of Mendoza with fellow German artist Robert Krause, painting children on three-wheeled tricycles. When he saw monstrously large two-wheeled carts, he set out on horseback, following the eastward journey of the carts across the pampas to Buenos Aires. Rugendas and Krause took an old man as their guide, a young boy as their cook, and seven horses. 

But along the way, ‘a wild concatenation of events’ occurred—not once, but twice. And the events were devastating. But yet another tragic episode happened ‘like a satellite in thrall to a dangerous star.’ Krause found his travel companion on the morning of the following day. Fortunately, he was alive, but unconscious. When Rugendas woke, he was in excruciating pain.

César Aira writes of Rugandas’ miraculous recovery and the creative result of his momentous misfortune. The ‘faithful Krause never left his side.’

This is a story, born from fact, of recklessness, tragedy, friendship, loyalty, guilt, and gloom. It is also about revelations, imaginations, and inexplicable events. Nature features magnificently in this novel: ‘in the world of nature, there is always an explanation for delicacy. And this delicacy was supreme, incomparable …’ This novel is short and fascinating—a wonderful read.









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MARTINA NICOLLS
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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author  of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce  (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).
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