Collection Online as of December 4, 2023
April
Gustave Baumann
(American, born Germany, 1881–1971)
Color woodcut with aluminum leaf
Support: Zanders laid paper
Image: 33.2 x 32.9 cm (13 1/16 x 12 15/16 in.); Sheet: 41.3 x 36.5 cm (16 1/4 x 14 3/8 in.)
Gift of Ann Baumann 2005.401
© Ann Baumann Trust
Catalogue raisonné: Chamberlain 135
Location
not on view
Description
April is the second woodcut (Singing Trees of 1928 was the first) where aluminum leaf rather than a printed color was employed for the sky. The glittering background enlivens an unmodulated field and offsets the delicacy of the pink and white flowering fruit trees. There are many precedents for metallic backgrounds, including medieval Italian paintings like Ugolino di Nerio da Siena’s Virgin and Child with Saints, from about 1320 (on view in gallery 110A).