Morning in Mexico

Chamberlain 143; Baumann 107.

Terrific image of a small town in Cuernavaca, Mexico form Baumann's stay there. This is a second edition after discarded first blocks. This print differs from the image in the Catalog Raisonne. Aside from differing colors not uncommon with Baumann, there are also differences in the blocks. The area along the left edge is different e. g. the left edge - elimination of cross hatching below the roof and the elimination of the lower left corner shrub like cross hatching. . There are also differences in the sky with more clouds.

In a letter he wrote to his wife Jane he narrates the scene: "No matter how good the ointment there is always a fly in it--we settled down to a good night's rest--and at FOUR a.m. the seven garrisons in the town began to Pah Pah de Pah, sometimes singly and sometimes in unison...at breakfast they told us there had been more bugling than usual because there had been an execution. Gosh, it's six p.m. and there they go again, four of em along with the cathedral bells...the world is all Pah Pah de Pah and ding dong ding..." (p. 385, In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann).

Gustave Baumann was born in Magdeburg, Germany on June 27, 1881. After apprenticing at several engravers in Chicago, he decided to open his own business. In 1901, he opened his studio at 667 Osgood Street in Chicago. Night classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago fueled his desire to go back to Europe for an education that would free him from the commercial grind. In March 1904, he became a United States citizen and in August of the same year he boarded a steamer for Germany where he studied arts and crafts at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. Baumann returned to Chicago in December 1905 and by 1909 he and other members of the Palette and Chisel Club discovered Brown County, Indiana. Saving up $100.00 he could spend three months in Brown County, sketching and painting. In 1910 he produced a portfolio of small format color woodcuts entitled In the Hills of Brown and then produced some of the largest woodcuts of the time. His color woodcuts were selected for inclusion in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition where he won the Gold Medal for Prints and an Honorable Mention for his Exhibit of Color Woodcuts. In the summer and fall of 1917, Baumann visited Wyoming, New York; Manhattan; and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Many of his Chicago artist buddies had traveled to the southwest and Baumann became intrigued by their paintings and their souvenirs. They regaled him with their stories of an exotic place named Taos, New Mexico. Baumann spent the summer of 1918 in Taos sketching and painting before visiting Santa Fe. Paul Walter, the director of the Museum of New Mexico, offered him a studio in the basement of the museum. His wanderlust was satisfied as apart from numerous sketching trips over the years he remained in Santa Fe until his death on October 8, 1971. During his ninety years, Baumann produced woodcuts, paintings, furniture, sculpture, toys and marionettes and wrote poetry and plays. Baumann was the ultimate craftsman, as he loved the feel of the wood, the tool and the handmade paper he selected. His hands controlled every aspect of his craft: the carving of the blocks, the mixing of the inks and the printing of the blocks.