El rapto

The present subject, an addition to Rugendas' famous series of pictures depicting Indian attacks in the southern region of Chile known as 'La Frontera', was inspired by the artist's travels in the district in December 1835, and dates to between late 1836 and 1842. Shortly after arriving in Chile, and for ten years between 1836 and 1845, Rugendas worked on a series of drawings now in the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung, Munich, for which see P. Diener, Rugendas, Augsburg, 1997, cat. nos. AC-D-1-25. Related pictures of the rape scene date from the earliest study in 1836 to the last executed in 1848, after his return to Germany. The present picture relates to the early studies, oil sketches and pictures of the same subject. The burning village, in the left background features in one of the drawings (Diener, AC-D-9) and the distant group of Indians on horseback recurs in the watercolour dated 'Bio-Bio, Dec. 1835' (Diener AE-D-59). The two Indians with the captured women appear to have been taken from the oil sketch in Munich (Diener AC-0-5, illustrated p.96). The dead figure in the foreground recurs in the early pictures and drawings (Diener AC-0-2, illustrated p.42) but becomes a falling figure in the later versions, increasing the movement in the scene and showing how the artist's pictorial conception evolved to intensify the drama (Diener, AC-0-6 and 16, illustrated pp.43 and 97).

We are grateful to Dr. Pablo Diener for the above information. The present picture will be included in Dr. Pablo Diener's proposed Addendum to his Rugendas catalogue raisonné (1997), to be published in 2002.