Artist

Title

Wash Barnes Cabin

Description

This large color woodcut was one of the earliest American woodcuts of such size, and is one of five large format prints Baumann did of Indiana. This is primarily because finding a large piece of wood with a fine enough grain that does not also have blemishes is very difficult. In the catalogue raisonne In a Modern Rendering - the Color Bock Prints of Gustave Baumann, author Gala Chamberlain notes that Baumann had to mend the block using a kind of plaster-of-Paris that he created himself to repair unintended gouges, as recutting the block was impossible. This work is from the second campaign of 50 impressions printed in 1914. It was included in the Pan-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco, CA in 1915 (PPIE 1915, cat. no. 897).

Please note that this work is framed in a custom Arts and Crafts frame by noted Berkeley framer Timothy Holton. It was professionally removed from the frame and inspected by the owners of the Annex Galleries, who are also framers. The print is being sold in the frame with a sheet of OP acrylic.

About the subject, from Chamberlain's book: "The log cabin was the residence of Washington and Mary Barnes, both very colorful characters. Baumann wrote a picturesque description of the people and the place: 'Social amenities had to be observed with Mother Barnes, who didn’t mind artists in fact she was greatly flattered when they came to paint her cabin but she had an undying hate for photographers especially when they snapped her picture unbeknown to her and then compounded the error by sending her a print of it….The place was a confusion of pictures. There was a split-shingle roof with a chimney that would indicate a huge fireplace, a garden that could hardly contain the flowers within the fence. A lean cow ambled by to somewhere. To give the place a semblance of order a long line of geese marched by scattering the chickens that were pecking around while I with my little Brownie Camera under my arm casually snapped a picture of Mother Barnes, when Wash Barnes himself appeared and I found myself invited for lunch with the family.'"

Date

1912

Medium

Color Woodcut

Edition

unnumbered, from an edition of 50

Signature

Signed

Catalogue Raisonne

Chamberlain 32

Image

19-3/4 x 26-5/8 inches