Description

Because of unknown salability, Baumann seldom printed an entire edition of a subject at once. He kept an impression, color proofs, progressive proofs, and the preparatory drawing as a guide for additional printing campaigns. The Roman numeral II on Mending the Seine indicates that this impression was produced the second time the blocks were printed, and it was numbered 35 out of an anticipated edition of 125. Baumann’s numbering systems, erratic and imprecise, changed over time, so it is sometimes difficult to accurately reconstruct the printing history of the blocks. The image depicts fishermen on Provincetown’s wharf repairing a seine, a large fishing net pulled through the water behind a boat.