Singing Woods

Gustave Baumann

Singing Woods was first published in 1928 after a tempera study created during Baumann’s long road trip to California in March and April of 1928. He would often begin his coastal trip in San Diego and drive to the village of Laguna Beach where he would camp for several days while filling his sketchbooks. This locale of Singing Woods is Laguna Beach. On the road, Baumann wrote to his wife Jane on 4 April to report his progress: “—well either I am crazy or I was crazy last year or this part of Cal. is really different from the Los A. [Los Angeles] blight further north—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.”