Lima’s countryside

Better known for his poetry, José María Eguren is also one of the most original visual artists of the early twentieth century. He was essentially a self-taught artist, whose formal studies were limited to private drawing and painting lessons he received as a child from the Italian Valentina Pagani de Casorati. Initially, his work was framed by an emerging landscape tradition developed by painters such as Carlos Jiménez or Luis Astete. Euguren would come to represent many views of Lima’s countryside, all executed with amazing attention to detail, a characteristic of his art that gave his works a deep poetic air, and which was described by critic Teófilo Castillo in 1919: “Natura maxime miranda in minimis” (Nature is greatest in little things). (RK)