Marigolds

Gustave Baumann

Baumann had an affinity for flowers, particularly marigolds. They first appear in his color woodcut of 1915 entitled Sunny Messengers, which was also known as Marigolds. His first rendition was in an octagon format that measures 11 by 9-7/8 inches. In 1916, Baumann expanded his idea by making a much larger image with a more abundant bouquet of marigolds in a footed vase. This color woodcut, measuring 22-1/8 by 18-1/4 inches, was designed to be sized into an oval format by cutting along a white line found just outside of the scalloped border. His final vision and version resulted in a square format color woodcut entitled Marigolds. Baumann cut down his blocks for his large woodcut, in essence pruning flower heads from his bouquet and cropping the vase. He discarded his background blocks and cut two new blocks which added the brown velvet curtain backdrop. The version of Marigolds seen here was created and printed in 1960 when Baumann printed twenty impressions. This impression is editioned I 6-125 so Baumann probably editioned it many years later and simply forgot his system of numbering for this color woodcut.