Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

About this Work

Gustave Baumann visited the bucolic, southern Indiana town of Nashville around 1909. Captivated by the region's peacefulness, natural beauty, low cost of living, and the camaraderie of the members of the Brown County Art Colony, he became a part-time resident from 1910 until 1916. Although he spent a relatively short time in the state, it proved to be an important transitional period for the artist, a time when he began to create and exhibit increasingly complex independent woodcuts. Perhaps, inspired by the impressionist style favored by the Brown County painters, Baumann's Indiana subjects also became more colorful, less reliant on graphic outlines, and increasingly focused on natural subjects such as trees, flowers, and the rolling hills.
After his move to the southwest, his palette became more intense even when depicting an earlier Hoosier subject, such as this scene based on a watercolor called Granny's Garden from around 1916. This print's vibrant colors capture the informal arrangement of late summer flora--hollyhocks, morning glories, poppies, daisies, black-eyed Susan, marigolds, nasturtiums, and petunias--in an old-fashioned country garden. Details such as the chair and birdhouse add a touch of whimsy and regional character.
Although he cut seven woodblocks (one for each color) in 1927, Baumann made four editions, including this final printing in 1961. The Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art's collection includes this final published print and six progressive proofs (Eskenazi Museum of Art 2009.64.1-.7).