Life in a Boundless Land: The Gaucho Scenes of Juan Manuel Blanes

Americas Society presented Life in a Boundless Land: The Gaucho Scenes of Juan Manuel Blanes, one of the most formidable talents of nineteenth century Latin American Art. Blanes was a major chronicler of his times, depicting his social and political environment, and life on the plains of Uruguay and Argentina, with psychological insight, versatility, and a masterful technique.

Blanes was born in 1830 in Montevideo, Uruguay. A self-taught artist, his early works, portraits, and historical scenes, were marked by an intuitive naturalism. In 1860, in recognition of his innate pictorial talents, he received a government scholarship to study in Florence, where he spent two years. While in Europe, Blanes absorbed many of the artistic trends current during these years, which were critical for the development of modernism. Blanes’ work, both in Italy and later in Uruguay, oscillated between portraiture, history painting and scenes of life on the grasslands of his country and Argentina.

In his compositions, Blanes often celebrated the way of life of the gauchos. Whether he depicted them alone, in small groups, or amidst animals, these men and women always interacted with the natural landscape, the flat horizon of the plains and the immeasurable sky. This exhibition of approximately 40 works of art, curated by Alicia Haber, focused on this aspect of Blanes’ oeuvre.

In addition, the exhibition included a small selection of paintings by such artists as George Catlin, Worthington Whittredge, and Jules Tavernier, who chronicled cowboy life in the American West. Through this presentation, the many parallels that exist between the Uruguayan artist and painters from North America of roughly the same period could be observed.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the book The Art of Juan Manuel Blanes was published by Fundación Bunge y Born of Buenos Aires in collaboration with the Americas Society and is availble for research.

^{The exhibition was made possible through the generous contributions by the Banco Comercial, Montevideo, Uruguay. Additional support was provided by the Fundación Bunge y Born, Buenos Aires, Argentina; the Cultural Center of the Inter-American Development Bank and the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C.}