Robert Frederick Blum (9 July 1857 – 8 June 1903) was an American artist. He was one of the youngest members of the

National Academy of Design The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...

and was President of the Painters in Pastel and a member of the

Society of American Artists The Society of American Artists was an American artists group. It was formed in 1877 by artists who felt the National Academy of Design did not adequately meet their needs, and was too conservative. The group began meeting in 1874 at the home of ...

and the

American Watercolor Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

Biography

Blum was born in

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

. He was employed for a time in a

lithographic Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

shop. He studied at the McMicken Art School of Design in Cincinnati and at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Maryl ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, but he was practically self-taught, and early on showed great and original talent. He settled in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1879, doing his first work there for

Charles Scribner's Sons Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner's or Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing American authors including Henry James, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Marjorie Kinnan Rawli ...

, and the next year travelled to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, where he executed pen drawings and

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

. After 1880, he made many annual trips to Europe. He returned to Venice in 1881 and in 1882 he visited Toledo and

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

. In 1884 he visited the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. He visited Japan in 1890 and spent three years there; he had been interested in that country and its art for many years. Robert Frederick Blum

His first published sketches of

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

juggler Juggling is a physical skill, performed by a juggler, involving the manipulation of objects for recreation, entertainment, art or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling. Juggling can be the manipulation of one object ...

s appeared in the '' St. Nicholas Magazine''. His most important work is a large

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

in the Mendelssohn Music Hall,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, ''Music and the Dance'' (1895). His pen-and-ink work for the ''

Century Magazine ''The Century Magazine'' was an illustrated monthly magazine first published in the United States in 1881 by The Century Company of New York City, which had been bought in that year by Roswell Smith and renamed by him after the Century Associati ...

'' attracted wide attention, as did his illustrations for Sir Edwin Arnold's ''Japonica''. ''A Daughter of Japan'', drawn by Blum and

William Jacob Baer William Jacob Baer (January 29, 1860 – September 21, 1941) was an American artist, considered the foremost American miniature painter. Biography William Jacob Baer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio on January 29, 1860. He was a lithographer' ...

, was the cover of ''

Scribner's Magazine ''Scribner's Magazine'' was an American periodical published by the publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons from January 1887 to May 1939. ''Scribner's Magazine'' was the second magazine out of the Scribner's firm, after the publication of ' ...

'' for May 1893, and was one of the earliest pieces of

color printing Color printing or colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three ...

for an American magazine. His ''Artist's Letters from Japan'' also appeared in an 1893 edition of ''Scribner's''. He was an admirer of Mariano Fortuny, whose methods somewhat influenced his work. Blum's Venetian pictures, such as ''A Bright Day at

'' (1882), had lively charm and beauty. His oil painting ''The Venetian Beadstringers'' (1889) was a popular work, which, when shown at the

, resulted in him being elected an Associate. In 1893 he exhibited ''The Ameya'' at the Academy and was elected a full member based on that canvas. Blum's chief patron,

Alfred Corning Clark Alfred Corning Clark I (November 14, 1844 – April 8, 1896) was an American philanthropist and patron of the arts. Early life He was the son of Edward Cabot Clark (1811–1882) and Caroline ( née Jordan) Clark (1815–1874). His fath ...

, heir to the

Singer Sewing Machine Singer Corporation is an American manufacturer of consumer sewing machines, first established as I. M. Singer & Co. in 1851 by Isaac Singer, Isaac M. Singer with New York lawyer Edward Cabot Clark, Edward C. Clark. Best known for its sewing mac ...

fortune, commissioned twin canvasses, 50 feet long and 12 feet high, for the proscenium of Mendelssohn Hall in downtown New York, which he had constructed to house the famous

Mendelssohn Glee Club The Mendelssohn Glee Club of New York City, founded in 1866, is the oldest surviving independent musical group in the United States after the New York Philharmonic. Their concerts, given in very high-society settings, featured the new (to America ...

. The first of these, finished in 1895, was entitled ''Music and the Dance'' (originally ''Moods of Music'') and is considered Blum’s most important work. The other, ''The Feast of Bacchus'', was modeled on a painting of the same title that Blum had sent to Clark as a gift in 1888, but was not completed until after Clark's death in 1896. These grand works went missing when the Hall was demolished in 1912, but were later found in the vaults of the Brooklyn Museum, which graciously put them on temporary display for the 100th anniversary of the Glee Club in 1966. Robert Frederick Blum died of

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

at his home at 90 Grove Street,

on 8 June 1903.

Gallery

File:Blum, Robert Frederick, Chinese street scene, after 1890.jpg, ''Chinese street scene'', after 1890,

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 113,000 works o ...

. He never visited China. Based on his many illustrations of Japanese street scenes. File:The Ameya by Robert Frederick Blum.jpg, '' The Ameya'' (ca. 1893), oil on canvas, 63.7 x 78.9 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ameya means a candy-seller. File:Robert Frederick Blum - Man before grilled entrance.jpg, "Man before grilled entrance". File:Old Powhatan Chimney Robert Frederick Blum.jpeg, ''Old Powhatan Chimney''. File:Blum, Robert Frederick, That is Where All Babies Live in Japan, 1890-92.jpg, ''that is Where All Babies Live in Japan'', 1890–92,

. File:Brooklyn Museum - Vintage Festival - Robert Frederick Blum.jpg, "Vintage Festival", ca.1890s.

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

Notes

References

External links

Robert Frederick Blum exhibition catalog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blum, Robert Frederick 1857 births 1903 deaths American illustrators 19th-century American painters American male painters 20th-century American painters Artists from Cincinnati Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Painters from Ohio Deaths from pneumonia in New York City 19th-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters