Rugendas was born in
Augsburg, into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of the city (he was a great grandson of
Georg 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 with
Albrecht Adam (1786–1862), and later in the Academy de Arts of
Munich, with Lorenzo Quaglio II (1793–1869). When Rugendas was born, Augsburg was a
Free Imperial City of the
Holy Roman Empire. After the
Napoleonic Wars, in 1806 it had the status of a city in the newly created
Kingdom of Bavaria. Rugendas was inspired by the artistic work of
Thomas Ender (1793–1875) and the travel accounts in the tropics by
Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and
Carl von Martius (1794–1868) in the course of the
Austrian Brazil Expedition, to join
Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition to Brazil as an illustrator. Langsdorff was the consul-general of the
Russian Empire in Brazil and had a plantation "Mandioca" in the northern region of
Rio de Janeiro. In March 1822, they reached Brazil to Rio in the company of scientists
Édouard Ménétries (1802-1861),
Ludwig Riedel (1761-1861), Christian Hasse and (1799-1874). As illustrator, Rugendas visited the
Serra da Mantiqueira and the historical towns of
Barbacena,
São João del Rei,
Mariana,
Ouro Preto,
Caeté,
Sabará and
Santa Luzia. Just before the fluvial phase of the expedition started (a fateful journey to the
Amazon), he became alienated from von Langsdorff and left the expedition. He was replaced by the artists
Adrien Taunay and
Hércules 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 of
Minas Gerais and
Rio de Janeiro. He also visited the coastal provinces of
Bahia and
Pernambuco on his journey back to Europe. He produced mostly drawings and
watercolors. On his return to Europe between 1825 and 1828, Rugendas lived successively in Paris,
Augsburg and
Munich, with the aim of learning new art techniques, such as
oil painting. There, he published from 1827 to 1835, with the help of
Victor Aimé Huber, his monumental book
Voyage 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. 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 the
New World". In 1831 he traveled first to
Haiti, and then to
Mexico. In Mexico, he did drawings and watercolors of
Morelia,
Teotihuacan,
Xochimilco, and
Cuernavaca. 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 to
Chile, Argentina,
Uruguay, Peru and
Bolivia, and finally returned in 1845 to
Rio de Janeiro. Well-accepted and feted by the court of
Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil, he executed
portraits of several members of the royal court and participated in an artistic exposition. At the age of 44, in 1846, Rugendas departed for Europe. The novel
An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter by Argentinian writer
César Aira is a surreal fictional account of Rugendas's trips to Argentina. == Depicting black people in Brazil ==