SERRA DOS ORGAOS BY JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS

JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS (1802-1858)

Serra dos Orgaos: 

Pedra do Sino (2,263m- 7,425 ft)

Dedo de Deus (1,682m - 5,551ft) 

Escalavrado  (1,490m -4,890 ft) 

Brazil

 In Serra dos Orgaos, 1820, engraving, Centro de documentaçao D. Joaoa VI, Brazil

The mountains 

Pedra do Sino (Bell Rock) at 2,263 metres (7,425 ft),  Dedo de Deus (God's finger) at 1,682m (5,551ft) and  Escalavrado at 1,692 m (5,551 ft) are the highest  peaks int the Serra dos Órgãos  (Organ Range), a mountain range located in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and containing the Serra dos Órgãos National Park. The peaks with steep rock walls are dramatic features that can be seen on a clear day from Rio de Janeiro, which is 50 kilometres (31 mi) distant. The Serra dos Órgãos cover san area of 20,024 hectares (49,480 acres). The range is an escarpment on the northern edge of the Guanabara Graben between the cities of Petropolis and Teresopolis. The name comes from perceived resemblance of the vertical rock formations created by erosion to the tubes of organs.

A north west fracture is exposed at the plateau's rock surfaces, which defines the direction of the ridges and valleys along the escarpment. One of these ridges contains several granite peaks including God's Finger. Formation of the rocks may have occurred around 620 million years ago. North east vertical fractures, spaced regularly about every 500 m (1,600 ft), cut the north west structures at right angles. Erosion along these fractures has isolated the massive rock blocks. The valleys have well-preserved deposits of debris that has fallen from the rock walls. In November 1981 a period of intense rain triggered hundreds of shallow landslides and flows of debris that blocked the BR-116 highway and killed about 20 people.

The painter 

Johann Moritz Rugendas was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in several countries in the Americas, in the first half of the 19th century. Rugendas is considered "by far the most varied and important of the European artists to visit Latin America." whom Alexander von Humboldt influenced.  

Rugendas was born in Augsburg, then Holy Roman Empire, now Germany, into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of Augsburg, the great grandson of Georg Philipp Rugendas, 1666–1742, a famous painter of battles.  Inspired by the artistic work of Thomas Ender (1793–1875) and the travel accounts in the tropics by German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl von Martius (1794–1868), in the course of the Austrian Brazil Expedition, Rugendas arrived in Brazil in 1821. There he was soon hired as an illustrator for Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition to Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Consul-general of the Russian Empire in Brazil, Langsdorff had a farm in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro, where Rugendas went to live with other members of the expedition. 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, left the expedition and was replaced by the artists Adrien Taunay and Hércules Florence. However, he remained on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces of Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Bahia, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. He produced mostly drawings and watercolors.
- More about Johann Moritz Rugandas

NEVADO DE COLIMA BY JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS

JOHANN MORITZ RUGENDAS (1802-1858) 

Nevado de Colima (4,260 m - 13,976 ft)

Mexico 

  In Nevado de Colima y Lake Zapotlan - Mexico 

The mountain 

Nevado de Colima (4,260 m - 13,976 ft) also known as Tzapotйpetl is part of  the Colima Volcanic Complex consisting of Volcбn de Colima (or Volcan del Fuego), Nevado de Colima and the eroded El Cantaro (listed as extinct), located in the state of Jalisco, in the west of Mexico, on the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt.  It is the 26th-most prominent peak in North America. Unlike its immediate neighbor, Volcбn de Colima, the Nevado de Colima no longer has any volcanic activity. Its summit shows signs of glacial erosion which make it difficult to determine certain aspects of its violent history. Today it is possible to find pyroclastic materials up to more than 80 km from the crater, projections probably caused by a catastrophic eruption accompanied by avalanches dating back to the Pleistocene.

The area where the volcano is located is protected by the Mexican government by decree promulgated in 1936, and creating a natural park of 6,554 hectares. This natural park also includes the neighbor, Volcano de Colima or Volcán de Fuego, which is considered today as the most active volcano in Mexico.

The Nevado de Colima is often covered with winter snow, that's why it is more visited between November and March. To reach the summit, one has to cross the city of Ciudad Guzman, in the state of Jalisco, taking the road of La Mesa and El Fresnito. The sides of the volcano can be accessed by car up to 4000 m.

The painter 

Johann Moritz Rugendas was a German painter, famous for his works depicting landscapes and ethnographic subjects in several countries in the Americas, in the first half of the 19th century. Rugendas is considered "by far the most varied and important of the European artists to visit Latin America." whom Alexander von Humboldt influenced.  

Rugendas was born in Augsburg, then Holy Roman Empire, now Germany, into the seventh generation of a family of noted painters and engravers of Augsburg, the great grandson of Georg Philipp Rugendas, 1666–1742, a famous painter of battles.  Inspired by the artistic work of Thomas Ender (1793–1875) and the travel accounts in the tropics by German naturalists Johann Baptist von Spix (1781–1826) and Carl von Martius (1794–1868), in the course of the Austrian Brazil Expedition, Rugendas arrived in Brazil in 1821. There he was soon hired as an illustrator for Baron von Langsdorff's scientific expedition to Minas Gerais and São Paulo. Consul-general of the Russian Empire in Brazil, Langsdorff had a farm in the northern region of Rio de Janeiro, where Rugendas went to live with other members of the expedition. 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, left the expedition and was replaced by the artists Adrien Taunay and Hércules Florence. However, he remained on his own in Brazil until 1825, exploring and recording his many impressions of daily life in the provinces of Mato Grosso, Pernambuco, Bahia, Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro. He produced mostly drawings and watercolors.

On his return to Europe between 1825 and 1828, he 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, which became one of the most important documents about Brazil in the 19th century.

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 use oil painting, with excellent results. Unfortunately, Rugendas was incarcerated and expelled from the country after he became involved in a failed coup against Mexico's president, Anastasio Bustamante, in 1834.

From 1834-44 he travelled to Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Bolivia, and finally went back to Rio de Janeiro, in 1845. Well-accepted and feted by the court of Emperor Dom Pedro II, 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.

He died on 29 May 1858 in Weilheim an der Teck, Germany, King Maximilian II of Bavaria having acquired most of his works in exchange for a life pension. His painting "Columbus taking Possession of the New World" (1855) is on view at the Neue Pinakothek, in Munich.