Gustave Baumann

Apple Blossoms

1917

Original color woodcut. Housed in a custom frame with all archival materials and Museum Glass (UV Protection/Anti-reflective). Framed dimensions measure 18 ½ x 19 ½ x 1 inches; image dimensions measure 9.5 x 11.25 inches.

About the artist:
Gustave Baumann’s family emigrated from Germany to Chicago in 1891, when he was only ten years old. When Baumann was 17, he worked for a commercial engraving house while attending night classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1905, he returned to his native Munich where he enrolled in the Kunstgewerbe Schule (Arts and Crafts School). There he studied wood carving while mastering the European technique of color wood block prints. After a year in Germany, Baumann resettled in the United States.

He moved to Brown County, Indiana in 1910. The landscapes of Indiana became his main focus. He produced a portfolio of colored woodcuts entitled, “In the Hills of Brown.” In 1915, these woodcuts of Indiana won the gold medal for printmaking at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. In 1916, he organized the first national exhibition of color woodcuts by American artists at the Art Institute of Chicago. Baumann headed to Santa Fe in 1918 to visit his friends Walter Ufer and Victor Higgins. Once in New Mexico, Baumann was overwhelmed by the natural beauty of the state and decided to live there permanently. It was there he met and worked with John Sloane, Randall Davey, and Fremont Ellis. In 1952, he was named Honorary Fellow in Fine Arts School of American Research. He continued living and working in Santa Fe until his death in 1971.