César Aira

A fictional account based on the life and work of nineteenth-century German painter Johan Moritz Rugendas traces his visit to Argentina for the purpose of achieving in art a "physiognomic totality" of his scientific vision, a quest during which he pays an enormous price for his success. Original.

An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter

Donald

This comes as close to painting as any narrative fiction I have ever read.

If I were wealthy, I would start a press and publish all (30+) of Aira's books in English.

Trevor Berrett

An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter is completely different than Aira's Ghosts, yet the freshness, the thrust forward into the unknown remains. I read about it on John Self’s blog, and he teased everyone with this: “What the book is saying is the book.” I think John is exactly right, but after reading it, I see that Aira actually goes a step further.

Here we read a fictional account of an episode in the life of Johann Mortiz Rugendas, a German landscape artist. He is encouraged by the ideas of Alexander von Humboldt: 

"Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an all-embracing scholar, perhaps the last of his kind: his aim was to apprehend the world in its totality; and the way to do this, he believed, in conformity with a long tradition, was through vision."

Under this philosophy, Rugendas takes a trip to the Americas to record the life of Latin America. Aira gives Rugendas a particular desire to record Argentina:

"Although the Mexican phase is the best represented, and tropical jungles and mountain scenes constitute his most characteristic subject matter, the secret aim of this long voyage, which consumed his youth, was Argentina: the mysterious emptiness to be found on the endless plains at a point equidistant from the horizons. Only there, he thought, would he be able to discover the other side of his art … This dangerous illusion pursued him throughout his life. Twice he crossed the threshold: in 1837, he came over the Andes from Chile, and in 1847, he approached from the east, via the Rio de la Plata. The second expedition was the more productive, but did not take him beyond the environs of Buenos Aires; on his first journey, however, he ventured towards the dreamed-of center and in fact reached it momentarily, although, as we shall see, the price he had to pay was exorbitant."

Rugendas gets to Argentina through Chile and proceeds to journey across the country, hoping to get to Buenos Aires, recording through sketches the life he sees, hoping for a bit of action and always afraid he’s going to miss some vital moment.

"His other cherished dream was to witness an Indian raid. In that area, they were veritable human typhoons, but, by their nature, refractory to calendars and oracles. It was impossible to predict them: there might be one in an hour’s time or none until next year (and it was only January). Rugendas would have paid to paint one. Every morning of that month, he woke up secretly hoping the great day had come. As in the case of the earthquake, it would have been in poor taste to mention this desire."

Hopefully in the pulled quotes above, one can see Aira’s ability with language. Even when I was unsure where this was going, I was thoroughly enjoying the voyage. It is vast yet immediate, full of frenetic energy yet poised and controlled. Collecting the translated books by Aira is a worthy endeavor.

John Balek

Continuing on my journey of reading Argentinian literature this was my introduction to César Aira. An interesting novella, "An Episode in the life of a Landscape Painter" is story of real life, German, landscape painter Johann Moritz Rugendas. While Rugendas was an actual landscape painter who captured scenes of South America in the 1800's this story is a fictitious tale of an 'episode in his life'. 

What I enjoyed most was Aira's descriptions of the setting. He really does create a literary equivalent of a Rugendas painting. This book will make you want to visit South America and see the landscapes. For the most part the narrative is a compelling one. Considering the book is so short, it definitely offers a lot for how short the page count is. My only complaint is that the book does feel like it loses some of its intrigue in the second half. That being said, I am interested in reading more from Aira.

An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter

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