Watercolor on paper, signed at lower left, matted in a wood frame under glass.

DOA 23 x 26 1/4 in.

David Hagerbaumer was a prolific and highly regarded realist painter and printmaker, who honed his skills depicting wildlife by being an avid sportsman. David grew up during the Great Depression on his father’s 40-acre farm 10 miles from both Quincy, Illinois, and Hannibal, Missouri. It was here along the banks of the Mississippi River that he learned to fish, trap, and hunt for waterfowl with his father, uncles, and grandfather. In 1942, Hagerbaumer enlisted and spent four years on active duty in the Pacific. After being discharged in 1946, he and his cousin started Custom-Bilt Decoys in San Diego, working with high-density balsa, redwood, or red cedar. In the 1990s, Hagerbaumer relaunched his line of decoys, made from high-density cork.
Hagerbaumer worked as a staff artist and assistant ornithologist/taxidermist at the Carson City Museum. Afterward David pursued a career as a talented watercolorist and skilled printmaker. His work caught notice of Ralph Terrill, founder of the New York gallery Crossroads of Sport, who produced a 1956 catalogue, featuring four Hagerbaumer watercolors with accompanying limited-edition prints by Frost & Reed of England, launching his national career.

Good estate condition.