Morning in Mexico

Gustave Baumann

This image is from a trip Baumann took with his sister-in-law to Cuernavaca, Mexico. He carved a set of blocks in 1934 and an impression was exhibited that year, but in 1936 he discarded the blocks and re-carved a new set. This impression is from the second set of blocks. Baumann also painted two oils that relate to the scene in this color woodcut.

This impression has a green sky, other impressions can have an orange or even purple sky, for no apparent reason other than perhaps Baumann felt like printing it that way that day.

This impression is dedicated to "David and Helen" and may have been to his good friends, the typographer and fine press printer Helen Gentry and her husband, the author and book designer David Greenhood, who lived in Santa Fe after 1963.

Note: Gala Chamberlain's catalogue raisonné of Gustave Baumann's printed work is scheduled for publication in the Fall of 2019 from Rizzoli New York.