He was born on March 29th, 1802 in Augsburg (Germany). He began his artistic training from a very young age because his father, Johann Lorenz Rugendas was the director of the School of Art and Drawing in Augsburg.
In 1817, he entered the Munich Academy. In 1821 he embarked upon a scientific expedition belonging to baron Von Langsdorff, who required a drawer to illustrate the nature of South America.
On his second trip to America, which began in 1831, he first visited Mexico, but he was banished to Chile after being accused of conspiring against the government of Mexican general Anastasio Bustamante.
He arrived to our country on July 1st, 1834, residing here for 11 years. During that time he dedicated himself to drawing and painting landscapes and inhabitants of our land in water colors and oils, like the mapuches for example.
In 1839, he moved to Valparaiso and released an album of Chilean Clothing. The following year, traveled to Peru, where he continued painting. He returned to Chile in 1845, shortly after starting to Buenos Aires and then to Brazil. Hence he returned to his native Germany, where he was a painter of the court of King Louis Maximilian I and II of Bavaria. He died there on May 19, 1858.
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