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Ann Baumann Trust Collection of Gustave Baumann Photographs

 Collection
Identifier: PAAC-0076

Scope and Content

This collection contains the photographs of the Ann Baumann Trust, which was created by Ann Baumann, daughter of New Mexico artist Gustave Baumann, in order to promote Baumann’s artistic legacy and preserve his archival materials. The collection includes photographic prints, nitrate and acetate negatives, color slides and transparencies, and photograph albums documenting Baumann's life, artwork, family, and legacy.

The collection consists primarily of Gustave Baumann’s personal photographs, most notably professional portraits of Baumann at work in his various studios and snapshots depicting Baumann with friends and fellow artists; residents and places in Brown County, Indiana and Santa Fe, New Mexico; Baumann's Santa Fe home and studio; daily life and social events in Santa Fe; Native American pueblos and ceremonial dances; and towns and landscapes in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and California. Many of these snapshots were probably used as reference images for Baumann's artwork, and some of them correspond closely to his woodcut prints. The collection also contains photographs of Baumann's artwork, including his marionettes, woodcuts, paintings, and sculptures; postcards from Baumann's travels in the American Southwest and Mexico; promotional and reference photographs acquired by Baumann, probably for artistic inspiration or for use in his commercial work; and photograph albums documenting Baumann's time in Chicago, Illinois; Munich, Germany; Brown County, Indiana; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This collection also contains photographs belonging to the Baumann family, including portraits of Gustave Baumann and his wife Jane Henderson Baumann as newlyweds; photograph albums containing baby photos of their daughter Ann Baumann; snapshots of the Baumann family at home; the personal photographs and postcards of Jane Henderson Baumann, including portraits and snapshots of Jane with friends and family, during her acting career, during her travels in Europe, at Santa Clara Pueblo and in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and numerous cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards, tintypes, and framed and cased photographs of Jane's relatives dating from the 1860s to the 1890s; and the personal photographs of Ann Baumann, including portraits and snapshots of Ann taken throughout her life and photograph albums made by Ann during her high school and college years.

Finally, this collection contains the research photographs of Gala Chamberlain, who served as trustee of the Ann Baumann Trust following Ann Baumann's death in 2011. Most of these photographs were taken between 1980 and 2012 as research for the catalogue raisonné of Gustave Baumann's color woodcuts. Chamberlain's photographs include a substantial number of color slides and transparencies, color prints, and negatives of Baumann's artwork, primarily his woodcuts and paintings, as well as copy negatives of photographs in Gustave, Jane, and Ann Baumann's personal collections. In addition to being used for research purposes, some of these images may have been used in the published version of the catalogue raisonné.

Dates

  • 1860s-2012
  • Majority of material found in 1895-1974

Creator

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to researchers on an appointment basis. Contact the Photo Archivist to request to view original material.

Copy Restrictions

User responsible for all copyright compliance. Permission to publish must be obtained from Photo Archives. Form to request permission available at: https://www.nmhistorymuseum.org/collections/photo-archives/order-photos

Biographical Information

Gustave Baumann (1881-1971)

Gustave Baumann was born in Magdeburg, Germany on June 27, 1881. In 1891, his family moved from Germany to Chicago, Illinois. Baumann began working in Chicago’s commercial art district at age 16 to help support his family and later began attending night classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. From August 1904 to December 1905, Baumann returned to Germany to study at the Royal Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) in Munich, where he learned the art of woodblock printing. Baumann returned to Chicago in 1906 and continued working as a commercial artist. In 1908, Baumann joined the Palette and Chisel Club of Chicago and began producing his first color woodcut prints. In June 1910, Baumann moved to Nashville in Brown County, Indiana, where he devoted himself full-time to printing color woodcuts. The art colony in Nashville made a significant impact on Baumann’s artistic development. He became fascinated by the landscapes and residents of Brown County and used them as the subjects for his first published print portfolio, In the Hills o’ Brown, in 1910. In 1915, Baumann won the gold medal for prints in the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. In 1917, Baumann left Indiana and moved around various art colonies in the northeast before settling for a short time in Wyoming, New York.

In May 1918, Baumann visited the art colony in Taos, New Mexico. In October of that year, he exhibited his work at the recently opened Museum of New Mexico (now the New Mexico Museum of Art) in Santa Fe. Baumann decided to remain in Santa Fe and established a workspace in the museum basement before occupying studios at 140 Canyon Road and the old Methodist Church on San Francisco Street. In 1923, Baumann built a new home and studio at 409 Camino de las Animas, where he would reside for the remainder of his life. In December 1923, Baumann met Jane Henderson, a singer and actress from Denver, Colorado, at a dance at San Felipe Pueblo. Gustave and Jane were married on June 25, 1925 in Denver, after which they returned to Baumann’s Santa Fe home. Their daughter Ann was born in Santa Fe on July 31, 1927.

Baumann was known for his vivid depictions of the Southwest and his use of vibrant colors. From the 1920s through the 1950s, Baumann produced some of his most iconic woodcuts inspired by the New Mexico landscape and daily life in Santa Fe, as well as his trips to Arizona, Colorado, and California. He carried out every aspect of the woodblock process himself, carving the blocks, mixing his own pigments, painting the blocks, and printing the images using a large hand-powered press. Baumann was also an accomplished painter, woodcarver, and marionette maker. He established his own puppet theater in Santa Fe, which put on public performances between 1932 and 1959.

During his time in New Mexico, Baumann became an integral part of the Santa Fe cultural and social scene. He was one of the founding members of the Old Santa Fe Association, which sought to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of Santa Fe and prevent outside development. Baumann was also a key figure in the development of the modern Santa Fe Fiesta, and in 1926 he designed and built the first Zozobra figure with fellow artist Will Shuster. Baumann also restored and carved a replica of the statue of La Conquistadora at the Cathedral of St. Francis in 1934. From 1933-1934, Baumann served as the regional coordinator for New Mexico and Arizona for the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP), a federal New Deal program that sought to support struggling artists. In 1952, Baumann was named an Honorary Fellow of Art by the School of American Research; that same year, the Museum of New Mexico staged a retrospective exhibition of his work. In Baumann’s later years, health problems restricted his ability to carve and print new woodcuts and he focused primarily on painting. However, he continued to print, sell, and exhibit his woodcuts, as well as give interviews and lectures, throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Gustave Baumann died in Santa Fe on October 8, 1971.

Jane Henderson Baumann (1892-1984)

Jane Henderson Baumann was born Jane Devereux Henderson in Kimball, Nebraska on October 23, 1892. Her family later moved to Denver, Colorado. As a young woman, she studied music, opera, and performing arts and worked as a professional stage actress and singer. From 1912-1914 and again from 1919-1922, Jane traveled around Europe, where she acted in stage plays and received formal training at the Sorbonne in Paris and the Royal Academy of London. In 1922, she returned to Denver and opened a studio where she taught singing, dramatic art, and diction. In 1923, Jane traveled to New Mexico to study Native American music and for several months in 1924-1925 she lived with the Suazo family at Santa Clara Pueblo and studied Tewa songs. After marrying Gustave Baumann in 1925 and giving birth to their daughter Ann in 1927, Jane continued performing and frequently appeared in local theater productions with The Santa Fe Players. Jane became an integral part of Santa Fe social life and participated in many community service activities, particularly those associated with the Quaker movement. Along with fellow Santa Fe resident Olive Rush, she helped found the Santa Fe Friends Meeting and worked with the American Friends Service Committee. She also served on the Santa Fe Opera Board of Directors and the Women’s Board of the Museum of New Mexico. Throughout their marriage, Jane was an active supporter of Gustave Baumann’s artistic and business interests. She assisted with his marionette performances by operating the marionettes, making costumes, planning music, and directing plays. Jane also frequently assisted in selling Baumann’s prints and dealt with his business correspondence when he was unavailable. After Baumann’s death, Jane continued to sell Baumann prints along with her daughter Ann. Jane Henderson Baumann lived in the Baumanns’ Santa Fe home until 1976, when she moved to Santa Rosa, California to be closer to her daughter; she died in Santa Rosa on April 14, 1984.

Ann Baumann (1927-2011) and the Ann Baumann Trust

Ann Baumann was born in Santa Fe, New Mexico on July 31, 1927. She attended Sandia School in Albuquerque circa 1940-1942, followed by Santa Fe High School from 1942-1944. She then attended Bradford Junior College in Haverhill, Massachusetts from 1944-1946 and, beginning in 1956, the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied psychology and social work. In 1964, Ann settled in Santa Rosa, California, where she worked as a social worker for the State of California. Ann Baumann was instrumental in promoting Gustave Baumann's legacy after his death in 1971 by continuing to sell Baumann woodcuts and ensuring that museums and galleries continued to exhibit his work. She also donated many of his works to museums across the United States and internationally, most notably the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the New Mexico History Museum, the Worcester Art Museum, and the British Museum, among many others. Beginning in 1973, Ann formed a relationship with Annex Galleries in Santa Rosa, California, owned by Daniel Lienau and Gala Chamberlain, and by 1988, Annex Galleries exclusively handled all sales of Gustave Baumann’s prints. Ann Baumann died in Santa Rosa, California on November 15, 2011, after which Gala Chamberlain of Annex Galleries was appointed sole trustee of the Ann Baumann Trust. Chamberlain conducted extensive research on the work of Gustave Baumann, which culminated in the 2019 publication of her catalogue raisonné of Baumann’s woodcuts In a Modern Rendering: The Color Woodcuts of Gustave Baumann.

Extent

7 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Collection Available Online

Digitized images from the Ann Baumann Trust Collection of Gustave Baumann Photographs are available at New Mexico History Museum Digital Collections.

Separated Materials

  • Documents have been transferred to Ann Baumann Trust Collection of Gustave Baumann Materials (AC 523) in Fray Angélico Chávez History Library.
  • Books have been transferred to Fray Angélico Chávez History Library stacks.
  • Wood blocks and other three-dimensional artifacts have been transferred to New Mexico History Museum collections department.
Title
Guide to the Ann Baumann Trust Collection of Gustave Baumann Photographs, circa 1860-2012 (bulk 1895-1974)
Author
Alice Wehling
Date
© 2023
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the NMHM Palace of the Governors Photo Archives Repository

Contact:
113 Lincoln Ave.
Santa Fe NM 87501 USA