Brown County Art Colony
The Brown County Art Colony formed in the wooded hills of southern Indiana after the landscape painter T.C. Steele settled there in 1907, building his home and studio, the 'House of the Singing Winds', and painting the surrounding country. Adolph Shulz, who had explored the county since 1900, is regarded as the colony's founder, and he and Ada Shulz, Will Vawter and the woodcut printmaker Gustave Baumann were among the first to make it home. The artists' Impressionist plein-air practice suited the hills, hollows and rustic homesteads of the region, and the colony's profile was secured by the Brown County Art Gallery, founded in 1926. Its success made Nashville, Indiana, a lasting art town and drew a second wave of painters through the 1930s and 1940s.
Defining characteristics
- Impressionist plein-air painting of wooded hills and rural homesteads
- Broken brushwork tuned to seasonal light effects
- Intimate, pastoral subjects: barns, creeks, autumn woods, village life
- Printmaking alongside painting, notably Baumann's hand-colored woodcuts
- Warm, naturalistic palettes of the midwestern landscape
Key figures
- T.C. Steele (1847-1926) — Established the colony in 1907 and painted its hills in high-key light
- Adolph Shulz (1869-1963) — Colonist regarded as its founder and organizer
- Gustave Baumann (1881-1971) — Woodcut printmaker among the first residents
- Will Vawter (1863-1941) — Painter of Brown County landscapes and rural life
Sources
- Brown County Art Colony - Wikipedia encyclopedia