Gustave Baumann Property - Historic Santa Fe Foundation

Gustave Baumann Property
409 Camino de las Animas
Santa Fe New Mexico
2009
Historic Architecture Report
Prepared for the Historic Santa Fe Foundation
by Catherine Colby Consulting
Gustave Baumann Property
Historic Architecture Report 2009
CONTENTS
1
2
3
Context: Santa Fe in the 1920s
Evolution of the Property
Architectural Description
Setting
House Exterior
House Interiors
Studio
Shed
1
9
20
24
28
44
47
4 Historic Preservation
5 Characteristic Features
48
50
Appendix:
Painted Walls & Surfaces by Bettina Raphael
Sources
53
56
Gustave Baumann House 409 Camino de las Animas
Santa Fe
NM
The house that Gustave Baumann built in the 1920s is a significant
representation of artist’s houses in Santa Fe during the early twentieth century.
The interior finishes of the house embody the same attention to detail and skill as
his artwork. Baumann played an active role in the artist colony that flourished in
Santa Fe in the 1920s and 1930s. Between 1900 and 1920 the colony of painters and
writers grew as news spread eastward of the inspiring setting and the camaraderie with
fellow artists. A few painters came to New Mexico before WWI, and a much larger
influx occurred after the war ended in 1918. When Gustave Baumann first traveled to
Taos in 1918, he already knew several of the artists who had moved to both Taos and
Santa Fe from Chicago. Baumann visited Santa Fe that summer, staying with William
Penhallow Henderson, whom he had known in Chicago.1 Though not planned,
Baumann remained in Santa Fe until his death in 1971. He lived in the house on
Camino de las Animas for forty-eight years.
1 Context: Santa Fe in the 1920s
Gustave Baumann’s involvement in the Santa Fe artist community coincided with a
period of dramatic change for the city. Around 1910 some of the newly arrived artists
joined in the efforts led by archeologists and other residents to establish a visual
identity for Santa Fe based on reviving regional building traditions. While valuing and
romanticizing the traditions of local earthen architecture, the members promoting the
movement also sought to lure tourists and boost the local economy. They “recreated” a
New Mexico adobe architectural image when new “American” styles of architecture
such as red brick bungalows were gaining popularity.
The character of the revival architecture, according to its promoter, archeologist
Sylvanus Morley, comprised a long, low profile of no more than one story, with colors
not diverging too far from those found in natural clay, with parapets and such details as
projecting viga ends and canales. 2 Porches were to be inset within the masonry masses
of a building and supported on heavy beams, carved wood corbels and heavy, round
wood posts. A picturesque, balanced massing and features derived from local Pueblos
were also incorporated into the revival style. Artist Carlos Vierra emphasized the latter,
and promoted the sculptural quality achievable with the malleable material of adobe.
1
Gustave Baumann in el Palacio, vol 78 No.1, p.6.
Wilson, Chris, the Myth of Santa Fe, p.124.
3
Baumann did carve a model to illustrate a new tourist hotel in the proposed style for architect T.Charles
Gaastra, but his name does not appear among the artists recorded as involved in the new-old Santa Fe
Style movement.
2
1
Many of the artists who moved to Santa Fe involved themselves in the current
architectural movement, but Gustave Baumann was not among them. 3 Even so, the
movement’s success in terms of both architecture and economics changed the place
where Baumann chose to settle. From a quiet town that still had a primarily rural
character in 1910 and a population of only 5,072, Santa Fe evolved into a tourist
attraction and home to an active group of disaffected easterners who appreciated the
unique cultures of their chosen new home. Santa Fe’s economy shifted from an
agricultural to an urban one, and the population doubled between 1910 and 1930. In
1919 the city limits were officially expanded, reaching almost three miles from the Plaza
in each direction. When Gustave Baumann had his studio/house built in 1923, many
artists were remodeling existing adobe houses or buying plots of land and building their
own adobe houses in Santa Fe.
Some of the newcomers to Santa Fe worked with architects to build or convert existing
adobe homes into the new revival style, while several artists, such as Will Schuster,
William Penhallow Henderson or Carlos Vierra tried their own hands at working with
adobe. In the interiors of many of the artists’ houses, they expressed their individual
tastes, skills, and a glimpse into their varied origins. B.J.O. Nordfeldt, another of
Baumann’s fellow Chicagoan artists, set carved and gilded panels into his ceiling.5
Poet, Witter Bynner installed fine Chinese carvings and Pueblo Indian designs on the
floors and ceilings of his home. Though Gustave Baumann worked with an architect, he
strongly expressed his own individuality, craftsmanship and attention to detail in his
house. He carved lintels, doorways, and beams with the skill he gained from his long
experience with woodblocks. He also applied special paint finishes and metal leaf to
some interior surfaces.. His treatments of wood, walls and ceilings in his house ally him
with the worldwide movement of the time that disparaged modern mechanization and
sought to revive hand craftsmanship, the Arts and Crafts Movement.
Beginning in England in the 1870s, the Arts and Crafts Movement soon spread to the
United States. Fifty years later, Baumann would follow its tenets in Santa Fe. The
premise of the movement arose from a nostalgic longing for pre-World War I times and
for objects produced by hands, not machines. British artist and book illustrator Walter
Crane wrote in 1890 about the Arts and Crafts movement, describing it as a “…revival
of design and handicraft, the effort to unite — or rather to re-unite — the artist and the
craftsman, so sundered by the industrial conditions of our century….” 5 Arts and Crafts
proponents urged the production of beauty through fine craftsmanship in contrast to the
shoddy results of mass production. They admired the characteristics, colors and textures
of natural materials, eschewing new industrial products.
6
Baumann, Gustave, Frijoles Canyon Pictographs, 1939 by Santa Fe Publishing Cooperative Writers’
Editions.
2
In this country the Arts and Crafts Movement developed a particularly American cast.
Adherents valued vernacular traditions and tried to create a distinctly American, as
opposed to European, expression of architecture. This meant different things in various
parts of the country, but stemming from the same philosophy. The Craftsman and
Prairie styles developed in the Midwest, bungalows in California, and of course the
revival of historic regional architecture took hold in the southwest. Each is an offshoot
of the Arts and Crafts ideals. The juxtaposition of a somewhat southwestern exterior
and Arts and Crafts interior that characterizes the Baumann house may be incongruent in
visual qualities, but not in spirit.
In Gustave Baumann’s house the interior color palette, wood craftsmanship and the
more labor-intensive interior wall treatments express tenets of the Arts and Crafts
Movement that developed in the midwest. His own words about the book of sketches of
pictographs he produced in 1939 indicate how he held to those tenets for decades:
“The book printed on a hand press is, we know, an anomaly in these days of
multiple power presses capable of converting quantities of roll paper into printed pages.
Yet there are books of special interest that can be better done by hand, notably when the
producer, rebelling against the impersonal and complicated machine, is willing to see it
through almost single handed.”6
In addition to the Arts and Crafts Movement, Baumann’s cream-ochre-green color
palette and mottled painting techniques may also display some influence by Frank Lloyd
Wright’s early Prairie Style house interiors (1900-1913). Baumann was working in
Chicago at the time Wright was developing what came to be known as the Prairie Style.
Baumann may have seen and been inspired by examples of Frank Lloyd Wright’s early
work in Oak Park, or River Forest near Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright used his first home
and studio to experiment with design concepts, and utilized the warm, muted colors of
the Arts and Crafts movement. To provide an appearance of depth, the interior wall
finish in Prairie Style houses was often pressed on with the ends of a stiff brush, usually
with a glaze coat over a first coat in another color. This stippled or dappled effect was
meant to simulate natural textures.
The outstanding interior space in the Baumann house of 1923 is the gallery, which is
octagonal and lit by a large skylight. 6 In Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio built in
1889 and 1898 he designed an octagonal library with a decorative skylight. Wright also
designed an octagonal living room in a 1907 Chicago suburb home, and used the shape
frequently in his work. The octagonal form and the interior wall colors that remain in
the Baumann house differ dramatically from the popular bright white painted interior
walls and dark, exposed wood vigas or heavy beams common in Santa Fe houses. On
the other hand, in much of his decorative paint treatments Baumann added bits of the
southwestern turquoise and a strong orange tone to the duller palette.
3
In terms of their involvement in the activities of the artist community, both Gustave and his
actress/musicologist wife Jane were emblematic of this lively era of Santa Fe history.
Baumann’s use of adobe and the incorporation of hand craftsmanship in the house are
aspects of the architectural movement of the time. However, the exterior of the Baumann
house and some interior spaces incorporate only a few of the features characteristic of the
“new-old” Santa Fe Style. 7 Baumann came up with his own design, and then hired fellow
Chicagoan T. Charles Gaastra as architect to prepare professional drawings.
Later in his life Baumann wrote a short essay entitled, “on House building.” In it he stated:
With the surroundings in mind an interesting exterior is fairly simple to come by.
That is, to an amateur architect it is relatively simple if you let the interior
determine the ground plan.
Baumann valued Gaastra as“…an intuitive architect not bound by the rules of traditional
housing.” 8 (See Appendix A) Gaastra prepared working drawings for what Baumann
called his studio in 1923. The amount of input Gaastra had in the final design of
Baumann’s house is unknown. It appears that he followed Baumann’s requirements, and
the project is unlike Gaastra’s other work in Santa Fe. In other New Mexico projects
Gaastra employed a number of styles, including the Spanish-Pueblo Revival Style. He was
well versed in the tenets, and created a representative example of the new style when he
designed the Cassell Building on the Santa Fe Plaza. Featuring towers and ladders at the
upper stories set far back from the one story walls at the street, the Cassell building is
grouped with La Fonda and the Federal Building as among the earliest to illustrate the
features of the revival style in downtown Santa Fe.
Figure 1 The Cassell building on the Plaza north of La Fonda was designed by
T. Charles Gaastra representing the qualities of the new-old Santa Fe Style,.
7
8
Adobe, exposed wood lintels, flat roofs with parapets, canales and fireplace style.
Baumann Personal Files, Santa Rosa, California.
4
The crisp corners, the minimal front porch and the interiors of Baumann’s house do not
correspond to the predominant architectural trends of Santa Fe in the early 1920s. The
building is one story, adobe, and has multi-light windows, but together with a verticality
and stiffness alien to the sculptural and horizontal qualities of the Pueblo-inspired revival
style. The tiny projecting front porch is perhaps the antithesis of the long, inset portal so
important in the massing of revival style compositions. The brick coping on the parapet
also went against the revival style’s intention to evoke the character of New Mexico
architecture before it became a U.S. Territory and red brick copings appeared. The shallow
pitched roofs of the east addition of 1927 depart even further from regional flat-roofed
architecture.
Figure 2 The original house before the 1928 addition at the east side. The Lombardy poplar trees are not
extant.
Baumann produced a woodcut of his property in 1927. In this playful image used as a
greeting card, he rendered his property in a certain formal, classicist spirit. He also added
some elements such as gates and decorative parapet at the studio, and exaggerated the
heights and grandeur of his home. The photograph in Figure 2 shows the columnar
Lombardy Poplars that were in the front yard in the early years, but Baumann imbued the
wood cut depicting his own property with very stylized tree shapes that reinforce the
formal, classical quality of the way the buildings and paths are rendered. It indicates that
5
Baumann viewed the site as a whole, with circulation paths given the same level of
attention as the buildings. In the lower right corner his humorous take off on a title
cartouche of a map reads, “Geographical treatise together with greetings from Jane and
Gustave Baumann”. Pointing generally north is an arrow pointing to Medicine Hat; at the
west to Hollywood, at the south to Juarez, and at the east to Hoboken. The image of the
property is entitled, in a frame wrapping around the image: “A NEW MAP OF THAT
WILD AND LITTLE KNOWN PART OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW MEXICO
INHABITED BY THE BAUMANNS NOW ENTIRELY SURROUNDED BY HOGANS
OF THE CONVERTED SANTA FEANS THE KIWANIANS INDIANS AND ARTISTS
– GOSH.” The time required to chisel the letters into the wood block, which was only for a
greeting card, demonstrate the approach he took to his work as well as his skills.
Figure 3
Woodcut depicting his property that Gustave Baumann used as a greeting card in 1927.
6
The Setting of the House in 1923
In 1915 the area of town Baumann would later call home was just inside the southern city
limits. H.H. Dorman and Donald L. Miller owned large parcels of land there. After
statehood in 1912 when the chief draftsman with the U.S. Land Office, N.L. King prepared
the Official City Map, Buena Vista Street terminated at the west side of College Street.
Two years later Miller’s son Walter divided up the family land into several parcels and
introduced a new street, named East Buena Vista Street. The new continuation of Buena
Vista jogged southward since a channel of the Acequia Madre was on the east side of
College Street directly opposite the termination of the existing Buena Vista. Miller’s
parcels flanked both sides of the new street east of Dorman’s house, and they varied in size.
The subdivision sketch from 1914 shows the north side divided into three large lots plus one
small subdivision of twelve narrow adjacent lots, each about 33 feet wide. The lots closest
to College Street were trapezoidal in shape as the north-south property lines were truncated
at the north end by the diagonal edge of the Acequia Madre channel north of it.
Figure 4 Maps (with north at the bottom edge) showing the area of the Bauman house in 1912 and in
1914 when lots were subdivided. The three lots in red indicate the Baumann Property.
Five years after first moving to Santa Fe Baumann purchased three narrow lots of the Miller
subdivision, lots 4, 5 and 6 across from the large craftsman style house Dorman built n
1911. Baumann recorded his payment of $1,000 to Walter Miller in a list of expenses. 9
Across College Street was the property that would later become the home of poet Witter
Bynner, who purchased several small adobe buildings and incorporated them into a
sprawling Spanish- Pueblo Revival style property. It was just before Santa Fe artist colony
members expressed their romantic preferences by re-naming various Santa Fe Streets.
9
Baumann Personal files, Santa Rosa, California
7
Old Santa Fe Trail was still College Street; Camino de las Animas was East Buena Vista
Street; Acequia Madre was Manhattan Avenue, and Camino del Monte Sol was Telephone
Road. Close to the corner of College and East Buena Vista at this time, artists Carlos Vierra
and Randall Davey were renting houses prior to moving to other locations further south and
east, respectively. After Witter Bynner arrived in the neighborhood in 1920, the
College/Buena Vista area continued to be a center and meeting place for artists and writers
for many years. 11
11
Robertson, Edna and Nestor, Sarah, Artists of the Canyons and Caminos, Santa Fe, the Early Years, p 70.
8
2 Evolution of the Property
The building for which Baumann asked T. Charles Gaastra to prepare working drawings
was identified as the studio, rather than residence. The unmarried Baumann envisioned the
building as a large studio with attached living quarters. The building erected in 1923 was
less than 1,400 gross square feet in size. Of this, almost as much space was dedicated to
work as to home functions. Indeed the octagonal gallery was intended as an exhibition
space with the large skylight to allow customers to view his artworks, in which color was so
important, in natural light. The areas of the combined studio room at the north side of the
building, the gallery at the south, and the fire-resistant storage space in the center together
almost equal the size of the living spaces. The latter consisted of tiny kitchen, dining room
and one bedroom.
Figure 5 Drawing by architect T. Charles Gaastra of the floor plan of the original house.
9
Baumann contracted with the architect’s brother, George Gaastra to construct the building.
In Baumann’s own record of expenses he included paying himself to carve the living room
beams and fashion the small metal screens at the vent in the south wall. He also noted that
artist Will Schuster was paid $134.12 for some electrical wiring. 12 Upon completion of
construction Baumann set about embellishing the interior and adding some hand-carved
details on the exterior. Baumann evidently chose to add carved posts instead of the heavy
decorative frame or pilasters shown on the Gaastra drawings at the front door. The
differences between the Gaastra drawing and built conditions are minor, including a slightly
different configuration of the dining room cupboards and the three single lights of the large
casement windows in the original studio.
The photograph in figure 6 shows the house prior to 1927 before the vines covered the fence
and when a temporary structure was attached at the east side of the bedroom. In the greeting
card wood cut of the same year it is depicted with a long, shed roof.
Fig 6 South elevation prior to 1927 addition
12
A list entitled Paid by Gustave Baumann, in personal files.
10
The second and third phases of Baumann’s construction on the property occurred shortly
after two major personal milestones: his marriage to actress and musician, Jane Devereux
Henderson in 1925 and the birth of his daughter, Ann in 1927. The newly wedded Baumann
built a separate studio building in the northeast corner of the property in 1926. Baumann
made a rough pencil sketch, drawn to scale showing his idea for adding a bedroom and
porch at the east and also an addition at the northwest corner of the house, but this addition
at the northwest did not get constructed. The concrete slab at the west entrance, however
was covered with a small wood-frame enclosed porch with bead-board siding and a shed
roof. This feature has a distinct Midwestern feeling in the context of the stucco exterior.
GARAGE
LIVING ROOM
Figure 7 Un-built addition idea of
Gustave Bauman for the NW corner of
the house.
Figure 8 Addition as proposed in drawing by Gaastra
with porch recessed and one gate.
T. Charles Gaastra, though he had moved his office to Abuquerque and taken on partners,
prepared drawings for the addition to the east side of the house for the bedroom, screened
porch and wall to enclose a yard. 13 In his drawing, the porch is set back from the bedroom,
unlike the actual construction, which places them in the same plane. Though the drawings
proposed double-hung windows at the south, three casement windows were installed
instead. Under the windows of the addition are red brick lug sills, while the 1923 lug sills
were concrete.
13
His firm became Gaastra, Gladding and Johnson Architects.
11
In the 1920s the building’s exterior surfaces were originally mud plaster and the parapets
were capped with a very simple two-course coping of mottled, orange-red bricks. When
the parapets were later replaced with heavier, darker copings, only the porch parapet was
left un-modified at the house. During the Baumann’s occupancy the screened porch had
eight-light wood window sashes at the south end of the east wall only; the remaining
openings held only screens. 14
Figure 9 An adobe wall at the west, taller posts flanking the west driveway, and the side
fencing appear in this undated (post 1927) photograph of the house viewed from the
southwest. Photo courtesy Ann Baumann.
An adobe wall encircled the area west of the house when this photograph was taken some
time after 1927.
Figure 10 The façade in 1990, photo by Vincent Foster ©HSFF.
14
Interview Ann Albrink Jan 20 2009.
12
The Baumanns planted flowers in clearly defined beds in front of the house, and an herb
garden just outside the north of the yard wall. In the concrete birdbath the artist designed
for the front yard, the hat brim held water, and he later posed with the hat that may have
inspired it. The importance of the garden is something that people who knew the
Baumanns remember. Jane Baumann was very proud of the sweet woodruff in the herb
garden, which the Baumanns used for making May Wine. 15 Ann Baumann referred to the
entire area north of the house as the garden. The driveway, however, went directly through
it, designed as a one-way route with entrance at the west side of the house and exit at the
east side. 16
Figure 11 The concrete sculpture/birdbath Baumann made and placed in his front yard, and
Baumann posing with the sculpture and the hat. Photos courtesy Ann Baumann and Museum of New
Mexico.
15
16
Mary Burton Riseley Interview , February 13, 2009.
Ann Baumann Interview, April 3, 2009.
13
The woodcut Baumann produced of his property in 1927, though humorous and not
intended as a record, does suggest the appearance of the site at that time. It indicates that
the storage shed already existed. In a photograph of Ann in her play area in the early 1930s,
the shed appears in the background. This photo also shows the low wall east of the garage
in the early 1930s.
Figure 12 In the early 1930s there was a temporary playhouse for Ann at the east wall of the garage.
Photo courtesy Ann Baumann.
14
From the early 1930s, when Baumann began creating marionettes and Jane served as the
puppeteer, they used much of the living room to house the large wood stage. Baumann
installed rows of hooks between beams and nails in some of the beams for hanging
components of the marionette theatre. Performances took place there usually in the
Christmas season. As late as the 1950s when guests came, the Baumanns gathered
everyone in the gallery in winter and the screened porch in summer, and used only the east
end of the living room.
Figure 13
Southeast corner of living room with painting and furniture by Baumann.
15
While the specialized paint finishes remain in the majority of rooms to this day, in the
living room they were repainted by both Baumann and the later owners. Once a beige, the
Baumanns repainted it in a flat green. The black and white photo (figure 13) of the
southeast corner of the living room during the Baumann occupancy indicates that the east
wall and fireplace were painted a flat dark color, in contrast to the remaining lighter walls.
A later photo indicates the color. In the early 1970s there were also cabinets, a piano, and
the refrigerator in the west end of the living room in addition to the Marionettes stage. 17
Figure 14 Photographs of the northeast corner of the living room in the 1950s and after the east wall
was painted. The image at left shows Jane, Gustave and their daughter Ann sitting near the fireplace
when the walls were a uniform tone. The color photo indicates a later color Baumann added to the east
wall.
17
Interview with Mary Burton Riseley, February 13, 2009.
16
The last construction project was the west addition to the studio in about 1937. Baumann
again did a rough sketch for the addition, showing it was intended as his studio, not for
guest’s use. He identified the locations for his workbench, lathe, table and storage. When
the brick coping on the parapets of the main part of the studio was later replaced, the
simpler coping at the addition was preserved.
Figure 15 Studio addition of 1939 based on Baumann’s sketch
17
In 1962 The Baumanns purchased the three lots west of theirs, the land between their house
and Old Santa Fe Trail. Mrs. Miller, who still owned that site, had given the City of Santa
Fe an easement across it for a water main in 1955. After Gustave Baumann’s death the
projected cost to relocate the water main (over $5,500) was considered prohibitive. 18
Figure 16 Site sketch showing the lot west of the house property.
Brief Chronology of Baumann Property Development
1923
1926
1927
1937
1962
1974
18
Land purchase and construction of original house
Studio constructed in northeast corner of property
Addition to house at east side
Addition to studio at west side
Purchase land west of property
Studio converted to guest house ; new parapets and chimneys at house
Baumann Personal Files
18
Gustave Baumann died in August of 1971. The Baumann’s daughter, Ann thought it
advisable to have someone living near her mother. Therefore in 1974 Ann had partitions,
kitchen and bathroom inserted into the former studio. However, Jane soon (1976) moved
to Santa Rosa, California since Jane’s two sisters lived there. 19
After Ann Albrink and Peter Gula purchased the property in 1978, they made very few
changes to the interior. The exceptions have been in the screened porch, where wood
window sashes were installed inside the existing screens at the north and northeast banks of
openings. The present wood slab fence around the west parcel was installed in the late
1970s, according to drawings prepared by architect, Jeremy Iowa. The living room was
painted all white, including the fireplace and east wall. The figurative decoration in the
bathroom was deteriorating and was partially covered with new paint. When the remainder
of the bathroom was repainted, Ann Albrink had the painter reproduce the decorative floral
motifs.
19
Ibid.
19
Architectural Description in
January 2009
Setting
The Baumann property
is approximately one
quarter of an acre, with
100 feet of frontage on
Camino de las Animas.
Driveways at the east
and west sides access
the studio, the storage
shed and the garage at
the north end of the
trapezoidal-shaped site.
Adjacent to the street,
the centered opening in
the original low fencing
features a light-weight
lattice arch and the
original gate. The front
fence is a type
commonly used in
Santa Fe at the time, of
unpeeled juniper posts
about three feet high
capped with milled
boards. In strong
contrast to the rough
natural texture and
color of the fence,
Baumann fashioned the
decorative wood gate
with zig-zag splats
within a rectangular
frame, and painted it
turquoise. The west and
east sides of the yard
are enclosed by an
open, low fence of
Figure 17 Site Sketch
widely spaced, very
small posts. The front
fence is covered in
Virginia Creeper, while at the sides silver lace vine sprawls.
20
Figure 18 Façade in 2009 with gate in fair condition and efflorescence at parapets.
The paths extending west and east from the south entry
path are informal and irregular combinations of
concrete and brick. They lead to the low gates at each
side of the yard. Inside the front gate, two steps with
flagstone treads and vertical red brick risers and a
flagstone path lead to the porch. The Baumann
sculpture/bird bath remains in its original location in the
front yard.
At the west side of the front yard, the low fence stops at
a low, red brick wing wall, which extends perpendicular
to the west elevation of the house. Plant materials in
the front yard in 2009 include a weeping mulberry and a
Russian Olive, along with lilacs, roses and ivy. The
Virginia creeper covering the east end of the front
wraps around the southeast corner of the house, while
its roots are on the east side. The frame bolted to the
front porch to support vines remains in place.
Figure 19 Informal path at east side
of front yard.
21
A stuccoed masonry Pueblo-revival style wall encloses the patio at the east side of the
house. The wall curves at the northeast to meet the northeast corner of the garage. The
heights of the wall step down in an irregular fashion, with the highest at the front and the
lowest at the north. A flagstone-paved area of about 150 square feet is raised at the south
end, and a flagstone path leads to the east gate from the screened porch.
Figure 20 The patio wall extends to the driveway at the east side of the house, curving to meet the
garage wall at the north.
Three gates lead into this L-shaped space. The south gate has a solid, tall arched gate of
vertical boards with diagonal battens; the east and north gates are low, solid, arched zbraced gates of vertical boards, all painted turquoise.. A linden tree grows inside the patio
wall at the north east and the portion of wall between the north gate and the garage has
been rebuilt with 8 inch thick concrete block.
The north side of the house also has very informal
paths edged with stones and planting beds defined by
stones. A small planting bed for the herb garden is
now enclosed by a haphazard pipe and wire fence and
minute picket gate north of the patio wall. A catalpa
tree grows north of the northwest corner of the
garage, and wisteria or trumpet vine plants growing
from the west and south sides join together over the
entrance to the studio. The wood trellis formerly
supporting the vines is no longer present.
Figure 21 Patio gates at south, east and
north.
22
The house exterior
The irregular form of the one story house is made up of a grouping of several volumes at
different heights. At the façade, the rectilinear volumes are stark and vary only a little in
height. Red brick coping defines the parapets, emphasizing the varied heights of the
separate portions of the original house. The entry projects forward and higher than the
flanking masses. (The living room at the north side of the house rises several feet higher
than the other masses, but is not visible from the front.) The front parapet hides the exterior
of the large skylight from view. The original façade’s three volumes are not quite
symmetrical, but give that impression since the pairs of 4/4 wood double-hung windows
each flank the roughly centered porch and front door plus the addition is small and covered
with vines. The central entrance and flanking driveways add to the impression of the
symmetry that exists only at the front of the property.
Brick wing wall
patio wall & gate
Figure 22 Drawing of façade and side walls by Charles Coffman.
Flat asphalt roofs cover the four primary original volumes of the house, each with parapets
and canales projecting through them to drain the separate roofs. The enclosed porch at the
west, the garage, and the screened porch have shed roofs. A shallow pitched roof covers the
east bedroom. The exterior is cement plastered and the parapets except at the front porch
have received replacement coping of three courses of a darker red brick, instead of the
original simple two courses of orange-toned brick. All door and window openings have
exposed wood lintels and bull-nosed jambs. The artist carved the exposed lintel at the west
window in a diagonal pattern; only traces of green paint remain. The lug window sills are
concrete at the original part of the house, and red brick at the east addition.
23
The front porch
The small, vertically proportioned porch and
decorative treatments at the window head west of
the entry are the only indications of Baumann’s
hand carving at the front of the house. Baumann
carved and painted the posts and lintels of the
porch and the lintel of the front door. The beams
are also carved on their exterior faces and had
paint in the recessed areas. He fashioned the
number, 409 and the light fixture of metal. The
original decorative treatment above the bedroom
window has barely survived. The front door is a
stock fifteen-light French door, but the screen door
is hand-made by the artist. Above the porch is a
small vent covered with a decorative screen made
by Baumann. On the roof is the wrought iron
figure the artist sometimes used as a logo
comprised of the letters in Koshare.
Figure 23 Front porch with wood vine
support and decorative screen at vent into
skylight above.
Figure 24 Detail of carved lintel and faceted carving over
front door and the metal screen light fixture, all by Baumann.
24
The relatively formal quality of the front porch and the façade contrasts with the remaining
sides of the house. The 1927 addition at the east has very little in common with the original
house. It is divided into two separate sections with different awkwardly juxtaposed roof
types. The horizontality of the window opening and the three casement windows in the
facade further distinguish it from the original parts of the house, which have double-hung
windows. Windows on the east side of the bedroom addition are pairs of wood casements.
The screened porch is constructed at least partially of red brick. The opening south of the
screened porch door contains the original 8-light window sash. Behind the screen door and
screened openings of the remainder of the porch are now a single-light door and eight-light
removable wood sashes.
garage
Figure 25 East elevation, drawing by Charles Coffman.
The north side of the house combines the
screened porch, the high, north wall of the
living room and the low garage projecting in
front of the west end. Windows in the house
and garage have exposed wood lintels and
include a group of three large single-light
casement windows, a pair of double-hung
windows above the garage, and the pair of fourlight wood casements in the north wall of the
garage. The parapet at the east and west edges
of the garage extends several feet above the
garage’s shed roof.
Patio wall
garage
Figure 26 North elevation viewed from the
porch brick wall
Figure 27 North elevation, drawing by Charles Coffman
25
Figure 28 Enclosed porch at west side of the house.
At the center of the west elevation the enclosed porch, which is a wood structure painted a
cream color, fits into a corner between the kitchen and living room. The lower panels are
vertical bead board and the upper panels flush. At the northwest corner of the house, at the
lower level is the garage, which has a pair of wood recessed-panel doors with exposed
lintels, behind which a partition and hollow-core door have been added. All three volumes
have red brick coping, and the garage has a shed roof draining to the north behind the
parapet.
garage
west porch
Figure 29 West elevation, drawing by Charles Coffman
26
House Interiors
The Baumanns used interior spaces for more than one purpose. Originally the west side of the
house was devoted to cooking/eating, the east side to bed and bath, and the north to the artist’s
work. But the gallery was later used also as a gathering place, the dining room for business,
and the living room again primarily for work (marionettes). The bedroom added at the east side
is somewhat awkwardly connected to the original bedroom, and also connects to the screened
porch. The other awkward result of the addition on the east in 1927 was to leave the bathroom
window, with air circulation only through the screened porch. When the porch was closed in
during the 1970s, this air circulation problem only increased. Not only the decorative painting,
but also the window screen were left in place.
WEST
PORCH
PATIO
Figure 30 Floor Plan sketch with rooms numbered for reference with the following text.
27
1 Gallery
Baumann displayed his work in the beautiful, octagonally shaped gallery at the front
entrance to the house. The artist very carefully painted and ornamented the interior surfaces
of the space where potential buyers would see his works and where people would gather.
Centered in the ceiling is the octagonal wood-framed skylight with textured glass panels,
permiting the artwork to be seen in a soft, natural light. The walls and ceiling are so
smoothly integrated and lit that the form of the space suggests a faceted jewel. The light
playing on the curves and the absence of corners between ceiling and walls give a sense of
openness above the space. Light also enters from the stock ten-light french front door
facing south.
The gallery is painted in two distinct tones
above and below a delicate band comprised
of geometric shapes. The upper foot of the
walls and the coved angle between wall and
ceiling are painted in a dark reflective tone. 20
The band contains gold and turquoise colors
along with shiny silver, and the walls below
are stippled in a motled ochre color. Within
the decorative band, at the centers of the
angled walls, the artist incorporated motifs
he loosely derived from Pueblo Indian
decoration. Stepped motifs enclose a bird,
crosses, an animal figure and a stylized
representation of a couple of people centered
within the band at each of the angled walls.
He also cleverly integrated nails for hanging
his artwork into the painted decorative
pattern encircling the room, making it serve
as picture moding. The small, circles
painted silver have a diameter close to that
of the nails, so the nails blend in to the
decorative pattern and are almost invisible.
Figure 31 Gallery view from northeast to front door
and west radiator screen.
20
See Appendix, p. 51 Painted Walls and Surfaces by Bettina Raphael.
28
Figure 32 Decorative motifs painted by Baumann on the angled walls of the gallery.
The four angled walls forming the octagon shape contain the screened heating units, the
fireplace and the door to the hall. The two angled walls at the south end of the room conceal
radiators. Baumann set wood blocks that were no longer to be used within a wood frame to
form the radiator screens. For the grille at the top, he cut narrow pieces of a wood block that
contain remnants of orange ink. The rectangular and square blocks he used below contain
some blue ink. The blocks in the bottom row were from his woodcut, Rio Tesuque.
Figure 33 Radiator covers fashioned of disused wood blocks set in a
wood frame. The grille at the top was also a wood block, which
Baumann cut in strips.
29
In the angled wall at the northwest, the arched fireplace
opening is slightly recessed in the northwest corner,
with the masonry above it stepping forward to create a
heavy curved molding rather than a mantel. Above two
bands of painted geometric patterns in an earth redbrown color Baumann mounted a print of the deer hunt
pictographs he documented in Frijoles Canyon. It is on
two pieces of paper and bordered with his signature row
of dots and has painted diamond motifs at each end.
Figure 34 Fireplace at the northwest
angled wall of the gallery
Figure 35 Detail of Baumanns pictograph print above fireplace
opening.
In the northeast angled wall is a stock
four panel wood door leading to the
hall. All around the room is a dark
brown straight and curving wood
base with quarter round molding at
the joint with the oak T&G flooring.
Prints were displayed on shelves that
Baumann made as well as hanging.
One set of shelves, placed on the
west wall remains in the house.
Figure 36 Shelves made by Baumann extant in the gallery.
30
2 Dining Room
The small dining room west of the gallery served
for teas and meals and doubled as office when Jane
Baumann greeted visitors and took care of the
accounts. Figure 37 shows the Baumanns at work
in the dining room in the 1950s.
Baumann used similar colors on the walls of the
dining room as in the gallery, but on the flat ceiling
he painstakingly applied squares of silver colored
metal leaf. 21 The artist applied decorative paint to
the built-in cabinets with their curving face pieces,
employing turquoise as backdrop for objects
displayed on the open shelves. Inside the cabinets
is the surprising orange color he used for contrast.
The wood picture molding at the joint of walls and
ceiling is painted in three colors: light and dark
cream with a turquoise highlight above.
Figure 38 Built-in cabinets and shelves on the
west wall of the dining room.
Figure 37 Jane and Gustave Baumann in the dining room
in the 1950s. Photo courtesy Ann Baumann.
31
Above the door leading to the gallery Baumann
placed a simple wood shelf, and painted trim in a
mixtilinear motif highlighted with turquoise paint
above. The edge of the shelf is painted orange, and
beneath it is a motif that is also incorporated into
the design above the windows. It consists of a
horizontal line with scrolls at each end and short
vertical lines dropping below it. The decorations
in the dining room illustrate a more relaxed freehand spirit than that in the gallery. It appears that
after the base coat of cream color paint had dried,
he applied the mottled ochre color, and then
dragged his finger or a tool through the wet layer
to produce the very subtle patterns. These include
a wavy line at the top of the walls and other
curvilinear motifs above the windows, including a
broad ogee arch.
Figure 39 Door, shelf and painted
decoration above it in east wall of the
dining room.
Figure 40 Light fixture in
dining room.
The original light fixture, with its art deco flavor, remains
in the center of the ceiling, with painted scalloped trim
around it. The dining room has variegated red brick-tile
patterned linoleum flooring in a slightly different pattern
than that in the adjacent kitchen and the same wood base
and quarter round as throughout the original rooms of the
house.
Figure 41 Linoleum flooring in dining room.
32
3 Kitchen
This room has been altered very little. Practical open shelves hang on the walls, and the
original painted wood panel-door cupboards and masonite counter tops remain. The top of a
low, movable small shelf unit has a hinged extension to provide more workspace. The ceiling
is painted and the floor covered with linoleum.
Figure 42 Kitchen viewed from northwest with door to dining room and door to west porch.
33
4 Living Room
Figure 43 detail of
nails and hooks in
ceiling beams.
Baumann carved the
lower corners of the
exposed ceiling beams
in the living room.
beams have diamond
notches distributed
across most of the
length of every other
beam alternating with
those notched only in
the center.
Figure 44 The west end of the living room was occupied by the marionettes
stage.
The marionette stage occupied much of the west end of the living room, and hooks and nails
remain in the ceiling above the location of the stage. Baumann had the walls of his studio mudplastered, with the original finish applied directly on mud plaster.
34
Now painted white, the east wall and the fireplace in the northeast corner had been painted
a dark purple-brown tone prior to the 1970s. Photographs show that the colors were
changed during the Baumann’s occupancy of the house. The artist incised a geometric
snake/dragon like motif and inset a tile depicting a Kachina.
Window openings are each different. The bank of three large casement windows is in the
east side of the north wall; a pair of one over one wood windows is high in the wall at the
west end of the north wall. The latter may have been a replacement after the space was
converted from studio use, but documentation for this has not yet been found. Under the
group of three large casement windows is a Chinese carved wood window box with metal
liner, said to have been a gift from Witter Bynner.
Each of the door openings in the living room
is distinct from the others. The surrounds of
the doors leading to the screened porch and
the hall are decorated, while the wood panel
doors to the enclosed west porch and the
kitchen are not. The doorway in the south
wall of the living room has a decorative ogee
arch motif in plaster surrounding the
rectangular door opening. Now a mottled
green, a mask and two wood birds decorate
the upper portion.
Figure 45 Unique plaster surround in form
of ogee arch at the door to the hall.
35
The French doors leading to the screened porch allow borrowed light into that end of the
room. The jambs and head are carved, in different motifs. The west door is an unusual
design of four narrow recessed panels and the kitchen door is a stock four-panel door.
The arcola gas-fired heating unit and the radiators are painted red/brown. Above the unit is
a decorative metal screen fashioned by Baumann to cover a small vent from the fire
resistant storage room south of the living room.
Figure 46 French doors in east wall with
carved surround.
36
5 Screened Porch
The place where the Baumanns socialized in the summer, the screened porch has a
relatively low, painted ceiling, banks of tall eight-light casement windows, and transoms
at the doors to the second bedroom and to the outdoors. The bedroom door is a stock
fifteen-light wood French door. The groups of three and four new sash at the north and
east are similar to the original three at the south in proportions, but with simpler
muntins. The new door to the exterior is a single-light French wood door. The decorative
highlight in this room is around the doors from the living room. Unlike the living room
side, these have not been painted over, and the contrasting ochre and light blue colors
enliven the three-dimensional quality of the artist’s carving. This is the only room
lacking wood quarter-round as a base, and the floor is in a decorative checkerboard
pattern in which smooth concrete alternates with a pair of bricks. The pattern is
enclosed in a border comprised of narrow concrete strips separated by a continuous row
of bricks.
Figure 47
East wall of screened porch.
37
Figure 49 Detail of carving
Figure 48 The surround of the French doors
on the porch side are painted in contrasting
colors, emphasizing the faceted and rope
carving.
Figure 50 Checker board floor pattern of brick
and concrete at left and the
38
6 Bed 1
The iridescent dark gold tone of the bedroom ceiling is not squares of metal leaf as in
the dining room, but painted, and has a quality similar to that in the gallery. The method
Baumann used is unknown, but the end result is a deep bronze to dark silver color.
Figuare 51 Walls and doors are treated with the same
wall finish.
The wood crown molding just below
the ceiling is painted in the mottled
cream/ochre tones of the walls,
doors and door trim. Close
examination reveals hints of
additional colors (green, turquoise)
that give the walls their depth and
texture. The thin strip of turquoise
paint on the wall above the applied
molding and a scalloped line below
it form a highly ornamental trim at
the joint between wall and ceiling.
In the east wall, where originally
there was a window, a wood panel
door with two vertical recessed
panels below and glass above are
painted in the same scheme, with
lighter colored scalloping around
the two panels.
The north wall contains a closet
with decorated sets of two doors
below and two pairs of recessed
panel cabinet doors above. The
high, small doors are each
decorated with a free hand floral
or an animal motif. The closet
interior is painted orange. Above
the double-hung windows in the
south wall Baumann added a
loose rendition of a mixtilinear
decoration by dragging a finger
or tool through the top layer of
the wall paints, exposing the
cream color of the previous layer
as in the dining room.
Figure 52 Detail of decorations in paint and the colors of the
crown molding.
39
In the northwest corner of the room, mounted behind the door from the hall is a remnant
from an earlier period in Gustave Baumann’s life. A humorous figure of plywood,
painted on both sides, hinged to swing depicts a young woman with one leg and arm
outstretched, and one hand holding a tiny umbrella. Some of Baumann’s ties still hang
on this rack, and he wrote in all caps on a piece of masking tape “All that remains of
teaching manual training in a summer school at Wyoming, New York, 1914.”
Figure 53 Tie rack made by Baumann in 1914.
40
7
Bed 2
The bedroom added after Ann Baumann was born in 1927 has a dark gold-leafed
ceiling. The room continues roughly the same color scheme of bedroom 1, a similar
picture mold decoration, but the mottled wall surface is less finely applied and no
turquoise is painted above the molding. The door from bedroom 1, replacing the former
window, has an exposed wood lintel. Construction differences in the second bedroom
include the use of only a quarter round base and wood interior windowsills. A small,
low closet with decorated doors is built into the northwest corner and a fireplace in the
northeast corner. The fireplace is the traditional southwestern shape and has a concrete
hearth like the earlier fireplaces and minimal decoration of two lines ending in a scroll.
The door to the screened porch at the north side of the room has a single-light operable
transom above the 15-lite wood French door. The artist again added ornament above the
sets of casement windows in different sizes and heights, in this case including lines,
scroll ends, and ogee arches.
Figure 54 Details of the bedroom added in 1927.
8
Storage
The vault in which Baumann stored his flammable wood blocks and important papers
has a concrete ceiling and floor, with mud plastered walls and wood shelves. The
entrance from the hall is through a pair of metal recessed panel doors.
41
9 Hall
The five-sided hall between the gallery and living room has
a two-tone ceiling of dark green and blue. The space
contains cabinets, a closet, and a high shelf encircling all
sides. Baumann kept some of his collection of kachinas on
the shelf. It separates the light colors of the painted walls
and cabinet work from the dark decorative finishes Baumann
applied above it, and is highlighted with orange on the edge.
A mixture of mottled blues and dark green cover the walls
above the shelf, and directly above it is a dark painted zigzag motif with blue outlining. The door to bedroom 1, the
door to the bathroom, and the door of the closet are stock
wood panel doors painted the same mottled tones as the
walls and trim.
Figure 55 Paint colors in
the hall.
Figure 56 Gustave Baumann’s kachinas on the shelf encircling the hall.
Photo courtesy Ann Baumann.
42
The Studio Exterior and Interiors
The exteriors of the studio continue the theme of plastered
volumes at slightly different heights capped with brick
coping. At the front are six over six double hung windows.
For his studio, Baumann ornamented the window screens with
a thin filet molding painted silver, and the window heads are
chip carved in a diamond motif.
On the east side of the studio is a small casement window.
North light entered Baumann’s studio through a nine-light
steel sash window with a six-light operable panel in the
center, in the north wall. The addition has one-over-one
double hung windows on the west and south sides.
Figure 57 Window and
silver trim on screen at
south wall of studio.
Figure 58 View of the studio from the southwest.
Figure 59 South elevation of studio.
43
A curious feature remains at the interior heads of the two windows
in the south wall: classical pediment trim usually only applied at
the exteriors of buildings. A hand made shelf is under the west
window.
Figure 60 Interior of
window in south wall
has pedimented trim.
When the addition was built in about
1937, the hand-made front door at the
west side of the existing studio was
moved to serve at the new building
entrance facing south in the addition.
The door, angled at the top, is
fashioned from two layers of boards,
set diagonally at the exterior and set
vertically at the interior. A small light
is framed with silver-painted wood
molding. The exterior of the door is
decorated with double rows of metal
fillet which then drops diagonally to
enclose the small decorative
doorknocker.
The windows in the addition also
include a four over four wood doublehung unit at the south, and four over
four double-hung units, single in the
west and a pair in the north wall.
Figure 61 Studio door made by Baumann.
44
Figure 62 Studio floor plan sketch.
The interior partitions and plumbing features installed after Gustave Baumann’s death are
awkwardly inserted and of poor quality construction. The interior is now painted white,
and two large storage cabinets built by Baumann remain inside. One has been painted
white, while the other retains his paint details and colors, his logo, and the date, 1935.
The character of the area behind the house, which the Baumann’s referred to as the garden,
is very informal, in contrast to what is shown in the woodcut. The Baumanns maintained
flower and herb beds, but both their borders and paths are simply stones. The stone wall at
the north boundary of the property extends from the northeast corner to the shed. West of
the studio is a small flag stone-paved area, and a rectangular receptacle of unknonw use
built into the stone wall.
45
The Shed
A pitched roof, low rectangular building, the shed is mud plastered in the interior, like the
garage. Baumann again made a unique door for the shed, while the window is a stock
wood casement unit.
Figure 63 The south elevation of the shed and details of the door and window.
Baumann made the shed door with horizontal boards at the exterior and vertical at the
interior with the metal fillet applied around the edges, with a double vertical and two
separate horizontal pieces of trim. The window screen has the same metal fillet molding,
and in each case they are not painted in contrasting colors as at the studio. Instead they are
painted the green of the door and the cream of the window. Baumann paid attention to the
roof fascia, using a strong blue paint to highlight it. A new pro-panel standing seam metal
roof has been installed over the original roof.
In the northwest corner was the wood chicken coop, which is now in very poor condition
and covered in vines.
Figures 64 and 65 From north of the property the shed wall stucco does not have the final color coat. The
stone wall north of the studio is deteriorating; the trees of heaven were removed in 2009.
46
4 Historic Preservation
For almost fifty years after the original house was built in 1923, Gustave Baumann
added various elements to his property, creating an interrelated grouping of buildings
and plantings. The approach to preserving it for the future is based on identifying the
site features, exteriors and interior spaces that give the place its historic character. But
more than a list of features is required. It is also important to determine an overall
approach to the preservation project and to follow through consistently. Decisions about
repair, code compliance, or replacement of deteriorated features will each express the
central approach. In that way, inconsistencies, for example restoration of one feature to a
certain time period while the remainder reflects a later time, will be avoided.
The Baumann property is eligible for individual listing in the National Register of
Historic Places. The selection of the overall approach to treatment of the Baumann
property reflects its relative importance in history, its physical condition, its probable
new use, and on health and safety concerns. The recommended preservation approach is
based on current national standards and guidelines for rehabilitating historic buildings.
The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Historic Preservation define four strategies,
here listed in order of minimum to major intervention: Preservation, Rehabilitation,
Restoration and Reconstruction. Preservation, in contrast to Rehabilitation, would
stabilize existing features and include only limited upgrading of mechanical, electrical
and plumbing systems to make a property functional. Rehabilitation is defined as the
process of repairing and altering a property to allow efficient contemporary use while
preserving features that represent significant aspects of our historic and architectural
heritage. Restoration would involve returning a property to its appearance at a particular
period of time. Reconstruction would involve new construction in an effort to replicate
an earlier appearance.
The Period of Significance of the Baumann property continues from first construction
in 1923 through the year of Gustave Baumann’s death in 1971. Treatments
recommended for the Baumann property are Preservation by the Historic Santa Fe
Foundation to correct deficiencies and Rehabilitation based on the proposed new use for
the future owner. During the process of Preservation elements added to the property
during the period of significance will be repaired and preserved.
47
Rehabilitation by property owner
Preparing the Baumann Property for a compatible new use will mean, for the most part,
preserving and repairing existing features, not removing, restoring or replacing them.
The general guideline for the new owner is to preserve the important features and
interior spaces associated with Gustave Baumann and defined in the list belo.
Part of the process of allowing for upgrading for contemporary uses, is to also define
those areas that are less significant in representing the historic character of the property.
These are the locations and secondary spaces that may accept greater change in the
course of work without compromising the building’s historic importance. Secondary
elevations or spaces have a more utilitarian use or are less ornamented. The secondary
spaces of the interior that may more readily be altered if necessary are the kitchen and
bathroom.
The construction of an exterior addition may seem to be essential for the new owner.
However preservation guidelines emphasize that such new additions should be avoided
if possible and considered only after it is determined that specified needs can not be met
by altering secondary spaces.
The property as a whole displays a hierarchy from front to back, public to private, and
the front yard, façade and gallery have the highest priority for preservation. At the other
end of the continuum is the northwest side of the house. Utility boxes and pipes are
surface-mounted at this side, and the Baumanns did not use this outdoor area in the way
they did the northeast yard, with frequent walking between house, studio, patio and
garden. If determined absolutely necessary, an addition could occur at the northwest
corner of the building.
48
5
Characteristic Features
that Must be Maintained during Rehabilitation of the Gustave Baumann House
Setting
Front fence, gate and arch
Side fences and gates
Flagstone path
Billy the Kid Birdbath
Informality of side paths
Use of front yard as garden
Patio yard wall and three gates
Red brick wing wall at west side of facade
Informal driveway materials and configuration
Open informality of paths and gardens at northeast and north
House
Porch and front door components
All aspects of the façade and east elevation
Varied sizes and shapes of multi-light wood windows
Maximum height
Gallery
Skylight
Paint finishes, colors and patterns
Doors and trim painted same as walls
Wood block screens
Fireplace, decorative paint and block print
Oak flooring, wood base and concrete hearth
Dining Room
Ceiling finish
Light fixture
Moldings
Windows
Doors
Built in Cabinets
Decorative paint motifs at door and windows
Wood base
Radiator
Kitchen and enclosed porch
Doors from kitchen to dining and living
Pair of windows
Living Room
Ceiling structure and monochrome character of finish
Decorative treatments at north and east door surround
Tall single-light casement windows
Fireplace and hearth
Flooring and base
Radiators
Screened Porch
Door to bedroom
Doors to living room and decorative treatment to surround
49
Size and proportion of windows
Floor
Bed 1
Ceiling finish
Molding
Doors
Closets
Windows
Painted ornament at windows
Floor and base
Radiator
Bed 2
Ceiling finish
Molding
Doors
Closets
fireplace
Windows
Painted ornament at windows
Floor and base
Hall
Ceiling
Wall paint
All woodwork
Wood doors
Metal doors
Studio
Decorative treatments at exterior windows and screens
Vines planted to grow over front door
Door
Windows
Shelf under window
Masonry interior partition, north to south
Shed
Exterior roof assembly, fascia, colors
Door
Windows
Stored windows (including storm sash and screens)
Furniture
Large book shelf in gallery
Small book shelf (held by Ann Albrink)
Dining Table (held by Ann Albrink)
White Cabinet in studio
2 Color Cabinets in studio (stacked) (signed 1935 and Koshare)
50
Appendix
Baumann House
Painted Walls and Surfaces
Prepared by Bettina Raphael
Observations from Visit on 2/19/09
·
The rooms have slightly different wall surface treatments but generally they appear
to have two to three layers of paint that have been applied unevenly in various ways
to give a mottled effect. Some evidence of brush strokes such as in entrance room.
Some appearance of colors being daubed on not with a sponge but maybe
something softer and smoother like a cloth, also noted in entrance room. Some
possible use of fingers intentionally to smear or accidentally to touch paint, such as
in the dining room. Some curious effect of water or another liquid being spattered
on top of paint and causing a dispersion of the paint leaving the lighter color
undercoat show through in soft, dappled spots. This was noted in the backroom or
child’s bedroom which also seems to have a shinier surface coating at least in areas
around the curved bull-nosed walls near the entrance.
·
Both bedrooms and the dining room have decorative effects above doorways, on
cabinetry and high on the walls that look like they were made by trailing a finger
through the wet paint to expose the lower, lighter colored layer.
·
The effect in the dark hallway between the entrance room and the living room and
bedroom, is different again. In the upper, background portions of the painted wall,
there seems to be a metallic background paint with distinct daubs or scuffs of a dark
brown green paint on top. The pyramidal or “mountain” shapes below this are
painted in a rather matte black paint that appears to be water-soluble. The dark
turquoise blue-green stripe above the mountains may or may not be water-based.
Over the top of all of these colors apparently a semi-glossy clean coating like a
varnish has been applied roughly leaving very conspicuous satiny patches and drip
marks running down over the matte black paint.
·
Drip marks seem to have been tolerated or even valued also in the entrance room.
An old dark silvery paint under the existing coating on the ceiling appears to have
created many drips that ran down the walls. These drips are still very visible
running over the cream colored background layer of paint before it has been daubed
with other layers, and under the metallic silver horizontal line, the turquoise arrowhead shapes and other small shapes of color of the decorative band at the top of the
51
wall. These drips seem to continue down the wall as indistinct drip marks covered
by the daubed-on, mottled layers of ochre paints.
Observations from Visit on 2/19/09 prepared by Bettina Raphael, continued
·
This decorative band in the entrance room includes the 4 stepped designs with
different iconic Indian images: a bear fetish, a stylized pair of people, a Pueblo-like
bird, and three arches with crosses. These almost architectural stepped forms have
short diagonal metallic silver lines along their top perimeter. These lines give a
curious effect and may have been added later.
·
Large headed iron nails form dark dots along top wall border in entrance room.
May have been used for hanging paintings/prints.
·
A similar palette of paint colors seems to have been used through most of the house
giving it a sense of consistency. For instance most walls have a golden ochre base
coloration. A dark green-brown, almost black color has been used on the base
boards and is similar to the blackish color used on the wood low cabinetry in the
dining room and on the bookshelf in the entrance room. Various shades of orange
and turquoise are used on wall border decorations as well as on wooden furniture
and carved elements in almost every room of the house. A dramatic almost electric
effect is created by the use of a bright orange stripe along the edge of the shelf high
on the hallway walls and bright turquoise near the ceiling of both the dining room
and the front bedroom.
·
Decorative patterns tend to be repeated elements often quite simple. Borders made
of dots are common on Baumann woodblock prints and a similar effect is created
on the wooden closet doors in the front bedroom and around the woodblock print
adhered to the wall above the fireplace. In the entrance room.
Questions to Answer
1. What was the original or intended effect of the painted walls?
· Many walls in the house have an appearance that is quite similar to the surface
impression of Gustav Baumann’s paintings and woodblock prints. A layered,
mottled or “dappled” background is common on the walls as well as in many of his
artworks. This layered, diffuse effect produces a visual richness, texture and depth
as well as a soft and luminous quality that is quite different from the flat
application of paint even if different colors are blended. The defuse, spotty effects
on some walls, such as in the bedrooms, remind one of certain marbleized paper
techniques from old books. It would be worth experimenting to try and recreate
the effect by perhaps spattering paint of different media on a surface or spritzing a
water-based layer of wet paint with a solvent like mineral spirits or ethanol.
·
The use of lighter under colors also gives some walls a slight reflective and almost
metallic appearance. Baumann seemed fond of metallic finishes and used gilt or
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silver and gold leaf on some of the frames and backgrounds of his artworks. In the
house many of the ceilings have a metallic appearance and at least 2 rooms have
what looks like silver leaf squares covering their ceilings. The entrance room and
Observations from Visit on 2/19/09 prepared by Bettina Raphael, continued
the front bedroom also may have originally had leaf on their ceilings but now have
a layer of metallic-looking paint that is deep bronze to dark silver in color.
·
The dark hallway between the entrance room and the bedroom and the living room
has a similar but more dramatic effect combining metallic and mottled surfaces on
the high band at the top of the walls with a darker palette. The walls behind the
decorative band appear to have a metallic base coating covered with daubs of a
blackish or dark brown paint creating a dappled effect with the luminous
background showing through when the single light on the ceiling is on. The row of
triangles of “mountain” shapes are painted in a matte black paint that seems quite
water-soluble. The dark blue-green stripe along the top of these forms may also
have been painted in a somewhat matte and water-soluble medium but it looks
more sturdy than the black.
·
Over the background colors and the band of decorative triangles has been applied a
semi-glossy coating that seems to have been brushed or wiped onto the upper
portion of the wall and allowed to drip down over the border of “mountain” shapes.
The slightly shiny coating (which looks milky in certain light) appears as distinct
drip marks over portions of the matte black triangles and there is no sign that an
attempt was made to wipe or correct these drips. Thus, the drips may have been
valued and left (as they were high on the walls in the entrance room). Could these
have been intended to give an effect of rain ? The ceiling has green brush work on
a light-colored background around the light fixture but the rest has been painted a
black that is mottled probably due to the irregular application of a semi-gloss
surface coating. So the ceiling also has a somewhat dappled appearance when the
light is on. Apparently this hall was where Baumann kept a number of kachinas
placed on the high orange-rimmed shelf running along the walls. It is tempting to
think that with the painted walls and ceiling he had created a sort of nightscape
background for the kachinas with symbolic mountain shapes and a dark, luminous
night sky.
What kind of paint(s) have been used on the walls and carved
wooden furnishings and structural elements?
·
Most paint layers on the walls seem quite stable and not readily affected by water or
mild detergent. Some seem resistant even to strong solvents like acetone or toluene.
·
The matte black paint on the triangular shaped border in the hallway off the
entrance room comes off easily with a damp swab and is either very friable or
readily soluble in water.
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Observations from Visit on 2/19/09 prepared by Bettina Raphael, continued
·
The paint layers appear to be generally fairly thin and may have a satin finish but no
glossy shine (except for some areas around the door and maybe elsewhere (in the
·
back bedroom). Thus, they do not appear to be the old style of thick alkyl or oilbased house paints. It is possible that casein paints were used or possibly even
tempera with some added medium mixed in. It would be helpful to discuss with
historians/preservationists what were commonly used house paints during the 1920s
and 1930s. For more accurate identification, analysis of paint samples should be
considered.
·
The painted arabesque arch over the door to the living room looks differently
executed with different paints than the other walls. It may be more like an oil paint
that is thicker with more surface shine.
The nature of various paint layers and effects in the living room are quite different
from the other rooms. Perhaps the chalky, ochre-colored paint exposed in one
corner of the room is original and looks more like a tempera or lime wash that has
not been stabilized and rubs off easily. It would be interesting to speculate about
how the desired visual or practical effect would have been different in this room
compared with the other more mottled “atmospheric” and durable wall finishes in
the other rooms.
·
·
The glossy, oil-based paint used in the bathroom both for the general wall covering
and for the scalloped blue-green border and the stylized flowers is very different in
appearance and treatment from most of the other mottled wall effects.
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55
Sources
Acton, David. Hand of a Craftsman, The Woodcut Technique of Gustave Baumann. Santa
Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1996.
Acton, David, Martin F. Krause and Madeline Carol Yurtseve. Gustave Baumann, Nearer
to Art. Santa Fe, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 1993.
Gowans, Alan. Styles and Types of North American Architecture, Social Function and
Cultural Expression. New York, New York: Icon editions, an Imprint of Harper Collins
Publishers, 1992.
Robertson, Edna & Nestor, Sarah. Artists of the Canyons and Caminos. Santa Fe, New
Mexico: Ancient City Press, 1976.
Sze, Corinne. HSFS Bulletin, Vol.19 No.1 June 1991.
Tobias, Henry J. & Charles E. Woodhouse. Santa Fe, A Modern History 1880-1990.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2001.
Weigle, Marta and Kyle Fiore. Santa Fe and Taos, the Writer’s Era: 1916-1941. Santa Fe,
New Mexico: Ancient City Press, 1982.
Wilson, Chris. The Myth of Santa Fe, Creating a Modern Regional Tradition.
Albuquerque, New Mexico: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.
Interviews
Ann Albrink, January 20, 2009
Mary Burton Riseley, February 13, 2009
Jane Farrar, February 18, 2009
Ann Baumann, April 4, 2009
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