David Hagerbaumer (1921-2014)
American, born in Quincy, Illinois

Pintails Flying Over a Marsh in Autumn
Signed and dated (l.r.): David Hagerbaumer, 1963
Watercolor on paper
30″ x 53″ (sheet size), 35 1/4″ x 58 1/4″ (frame)
Over-all in excellent condition.
David Hagerbaumer grew up hunting, fishing, and trapping to help support and feed his family. After serving int he Marines during World War II, he held different jobs as an artist, beginning with carving his own decoys and then working as a staff artist and assistant ornithologist at the Carson City Museum, a curator of ornithology at the Nevada State Museum, and a staff artist at the Santa Barbara Museum. He initially painted and sold his works on the side only, but before long he was experiencing enough commercial success to make his way as an independent sporting artist. Hagerbaumer was always best known for his watercolors of birds, and his works demonstrate a deep familiarity with ornithological habitats and behaviors. The present work depicts a pair of pintail ducks flying low over a marshland with mountains silhouetted in the distance. The birch trees frame the picture like curtains, placing the viewer offstage at a distance from the tranquility of the scene, tucked away as a passive observer. Hagerbaumer employs a wide variety of brush strokes to create different effects: the staccato pattern of the leaves against the slate sky; the ashen, smoke-like quality of the bare trees; the skeletal fingers of the grasses reaching up, dry and brittle, from the marsh. All these visual and textural juxtapositions create a pleasingly harmonious vision of a cold, damp day in the woods.

Item ID: WoA-WoP-WC 135

Price: $12500