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The People’s Laird |
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Summary |
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Heir to a debt encumbered Scottish estate, in 1870 aged 18, Robert Cunninghame Graham went out to the Argentine hoping that by ranching he could restore the family fortunes. The flood of South European emigrants to the Rio de la Plata countries had already begun: soon the gaucho way of life he was privileged to observe at close quarters would vanish. Consequently the brilliantly evocative sketches Graham wrote years later are an invaluable record of this period in Argentina, as they are of the aftermath of the war in Paraguay through which ravaged country he rode miles on horseback |
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William Rothenstein’s portrait of Graham as ‘The Fencer’. Copyright Dunedin Public Art Gallery |
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The Tobias Press |