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Singing Wood by Gustave Baumann

Singing Wood by Gustave Baumann

Singing Wood

Gustave Baumann

Title

Singing Wood

 
Artist

Gustave Baumann

  1881 - 1971 (biography)
Year
1928  
Technique
color woodcut 
Image Size
12 7/8 x 12 7/8" image 
Signature
pencil, lower right 
Edition Size
No 27 of 120 
Annotations
titled, lower left 
Reference
Chamberlain 128.1 (this impression illustrated in the catalogue); Baumann 90 
Paper
cream Zanders laid with Gladbach watermark 
State
published 
Publisher
artist 
Inventory ID
AB581 
Price
SOLD
Description

From the first edition of four, this depiction of a stand of eucalyptus came from one of Baumann's trips up the coast of California, specficially from Laguna Beach. In a letter to his wife, Baumann wrote: "--well either I am crazy or I was crazy last year or this part of Cal. is really different from the Los A. blight--its Eucalyptus trees are a different variety from those in Phoenix still more lacy and with the full moon shining through them. I almost enthused but I'll reserve that until the stuff is tucked into my portfolio--two weeks of flops make me a suspicious woman." (p. 357, Chamberlain catalogue raisonne, In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann)

In the catalogue an impression from each edition is illustrated on pages 358 and 359 (this impression being the one used to illustrate the first edition), showing the range of changes in color as well as light and shadow that Baumann would use. One might feel like a bright, summery midday, while another might feel like a moody autumn twilight.