In The Hills o’ Brown is a portfolio of twelve color woodcuts, with the title page, originally conceived and published by Gustave Baumann in 1910. These color woodcuts were carved by the artist and printed by him on the press of the Brown County Democrat with the assistance of Alonzo Allison and his sons. This portfolio was published by the artist’s Nashville studio, which he styled on the title page Ye Studio Printshop.
The subjects of these color woodcuts were the people and places of rural Brown County in southern Indiana. The titles are:
1. In the Hills of Brown
2. The Town of Nashville
3. Talking it Over (or Clinching the Argument)
4. Mathis' Alley
5. The Door yards
6. The Swimmin Hole (or The Suspension Bridge)
7. At the Forge (or The Blacksmith Shop)
8. The Wagon Builder
9. Town Gossips (or An Evening Chat)
10. The Rug Weaver
11. The Print Shop
12. The Courthouse Yard
Each woodcut is pencil signed, titled, dated 1914, and numbered 65 in the lower center margin. The reference for this portfolio is Chamberlain 16-28. The edition was limited to 100 impressions. In the Hills o’ Brown was Baumann’s first published portfolio of color woodcuts. This was a massive undertaking and Baumann printed impressions over many years with impressions dated 1910, 1914, 1915, and 1916. At first he numbered the portfolio but over time he began to number the individual woodcuts with their impression number as with the number 65 found on these twelve impressions. These woodcuts were printed on ivory Japanese paper from three blocks, the exception being At the Forge which was printed from two blocks with a third color hand applied to create the heat on the anvil and flying sparks.
The letterpress title page for In This Hills o’ Brown was greatly influenced by Baumann’s early years working in the commercial art field in Chicago. It beautifully introduces his color woodcuts with its layout, design, and font selection.
Gustave Baumann was born in Magdeburg, Germany on 27 June 1881. Ten years later his family immigrated to the US, settling in Chicago. In 1896, Baumann began working in the commercial art field while saving money to study in Germany. After returning from Munich in December 1905 where he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Baumann worked again in commercial art to support his family. In 1909, he discovered Brown County, Indiana where life was inexpensive and he could stay for three months. He produced a series of small format color woodcuts featuring the people and places of Brown County and then produced five large format color woodcuts. His woodcuts were accepted by the committee for the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition and he won a gold medal in 1916. Baumann headed east to Wyoming, New York in 1917 and taught at a summer school. From there he headed to Provincetown and New York City before returning to set up his studio in Wyoming, New York. The southwest beckoned and he headed west in May 1918, stopping in Taos for the summer and fall. His funds were low and he needed to head back to Chicago but first stopped at the new art museum in Santa Fe to see an exhibition of his woodcuts. The rest, they say, is history.
