Old Santa Fe

Gustave Baumann

In 1918, after leaving Wyoming, New York Gustave Baumann headed west, arriving in Taos, New Mexico in May of that year but he moved to Santa Fe in October, where he established his studio and his Koshare Press. By this point, he had established his own methods of printing, including mixing his own inks and printing sequences.

This impression of "Old Santa Fe" is from the second edition of a projected 125 impressions, printed in the mid-1930s. Once again Baumann adapts his color to reflect the environment he is living in. The lightness of Provincetown is replaced by the intense colors and light of 7000 feet high Santa Fe, New Mexico. This edition features a brighter color palette than the first edition of ca. 100 impressions.

Baumann commented about his introduction to the town:

"When I first saw Santa Fe, and not being familiar with adobe architecture, the old part seemed to be like picture book stuff that somebody had dreamed up and then had found it comfortable to live in.... The town as a whole gave me the feeling of a fairly well-adjusted mixture of Spanish and Anglo culture, with the Indian as an interrupted civilization still pervading it all. It made for a unique situation not likely to be found anywhere else."

Gustave Baumann, "Concerning A Small Untroubled World" (address on the occasion of the museum's fiftieth anniversary, Fine Arts Museum, New Mexico, 1968), GBArchives.