The Country Circus

Gustave Baumann
1909
Color woodcut
6 3/4 x 9 1/8 inches (image); 9 3/4 x 13 1/2 inches (sheet)

Other Information

Inscription: Signed and dated 1909 lower right
Provenance: Artist L. O. Griffith (American 1875-1956); the artist's son; the artist's grandson (by descent).
Exhibited: Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, "Fourteenth Annual Exhibit of Works by Chicago Artists," January 4–30, 1910; Chicago, Illinois, Palette and Chisel Club, "Third Annual Exhibition of Illustrative and Commercial Work," May 23–June 4, 1910; Chicago, Illinois, Art Institute of Chicago, "Fifteenth Annual Exhibition of the Society of Western Artists," April 4–30, 1911; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Museum of New Mexico Art Gallery, "Gustave Baumann: A Retrospective Exhibition of Color Wood Cuts," August 10–September 15, 1952; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Museum of New Mexico Art Gallery, "Gustave Baumann, 1881-1971," November 19, 1972–January 28, 1973; Fort Collins, Colorado, Morgan Library, Colorado State University, "The American West at CSU: Baumann Retrospective," July 15–October 15, 1973; Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art, "Gustave Baumann: Color Woodblock Prints, 1905-1950," November 3–December 14, 1981; Santa Fe, New Mexico, Museum of Fine Arts, "Gustave Baumann: Hands of a Craftsman, Heart of an Artist," October 2, 1993–April 17, 1994; this exhibition also traveled to New York in 1995, to Palm Springs, Cleveland, and Colorado Springs in 1996, and to Lubbock, Texas, in 2000 (other examples).
Literature: David Acton, Martin F. Krause, Madeline Carol Yurtseven, "Gustave Baumann: Nearer to Art" (Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1993), reprod. in color, p. 91, fig. 68 (another, later example illustrated); Gala Chamberlain, "In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann." Rizzoli Electa, New York, 2019, 11, p. 138 (color, other examples).
This is one of only four known impressions printed in three colors by the artist on laid Japan paper. Chamberlain 11, Baumann 121.
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