In Cultural Exchanges and Colonial Legacies in Latin America: German Romanticism in Chile, 1800–1899, Miguel Gaete challenges conventional interpretations of German Romanticism as a purely emotional and spiritualized crusade. Examining the painters and artists in this movement, he argues for a more nuanced understanding that takes into account the complexities of this cultural movement in a foreign setting, offering a critical analysis of its impact on the depiction of Chile within the broader program of Western modernity imposed outside of Europe. Below is an excerpt from the introduction to the book.

In the context of the burgeoning scientific and cultural developments of the time, the peripheries of the world became attractive stages for the implementation of new scientific and social theories. The German Romantic movement, in particular, espoused a bold and revolutionary social agenda that aimed to effect a cultural transformation through the concept of Bildung, which was articulated in Novalis’s famous declaration: “We are on a mission: we have been called to educate the earth.”

Such a duty involved Wissenschaft, which in its most comprehensive meaning can be translated as science, knowledge, scholarship, or discipline, as well as a specific application to the study of nature through Naturwissenschaft. Friedrich Schlegel famously expressed the ethos of this scientific culture: “all art should become science and all science art; poetry and philosophy should be made one.”As the reader shall see, this vision of the world that encouraged a synthesis between sciences and arts in the pursuit of Bildung would dominate and profoundly impact the work of German Romantics in Chile.

Even though the foremost early German Romantics such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Schelling epitomized the new spirit of arts and sciences, Alexander von Humboldt, the intellectual mentor of this generation of voyagers in Chile, was more influential because he brought this concept into a practical arena, reconciling a keen aesthetic vision with the enlightened spirit of sciences. This form of balancing ecstasy and scientific descriptions was, for German Romantics, “a marvelous weapon for the purpose of blowing up an over-set reality” and would undoubtedly have a substantial effect on the depiction of Chile. As a “man of genius” pursuing the education of humankind through the development of Romantic sciences, Humboldt set the entire attitude and even the physical appearance of Romantics in Chile, up to the point that Rugendas, for example, would be known, up through today, as “the Alexander von Humboldt of painting in America.”

However, all these lofty and Romantic principles transpired alongside more infelicitous circumstances. By the time Grashof, Ohlsen, Philippi, and Simon arrived in Chile, the German colonization in the south of the country had already begun. Although German colonization did not formally start until 1848, Germans had settled in Valparaíso and the north of Chile much earlier. Part of it was because Chile’s ruling class had recognized the need for a “civilizing project,” which entailed the integration of European immigrants into the country. The underlying purpose of this idea was to take control of the lands of the south of the country occupied by Indigenous communities, principally the Mapuche people. “Peaceful and industrious immigrants will bring with their customs more civilization than the best books, more wealth than a thousand ships loaded with manufactured goods,” wrote Marcial González, a Chilean writer and politician in 1848. The invitation to the “wise Germans” to colonize and civilize southern Chile “to improve the race of our people” was extended. Of the Romantics under consideration in this book, Philippi and Simon directly engaged with the German colony to such an extent that a significant part of the artworks they made in Chile responded to the specific needs and demands of their fellow citizens.

Cultural Exchanges and Colonial Legacies in Latin America: German Romanticism in Chile, 1800–1899 won the Klaus Heyne Award for Research in German Romanticism. It is also in the Cambria Latin American Literatures and Cultures Series headed by Román de la Campa, the Edwin B. and Lenore R. Williams Professor Emeritus of Romance Languages at the University of Pennsylvania. It is available in print and digital editions at the Cambria Press website.

Miguel Gaete is a social art historian. He holds a PhD in History of Art from the University of York, UK, and a PhD in Philosophy from the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. Dr. Gaete’s expertise lies in European Romanticism, specifically exploring the interplay of sciences, race, and colonialism in visual depictions of Latin America. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious scholarships and grants, including those from ANID Chile, the Paul Mellon Centre, the German History Society, the Association for Art History, and Gerda Henkel Stiftung. Dr. Gaete also received the Klaus Heyne Award 2023 for Research in German Romanticism Studies from Goethe-Universität Frankfurt.