Robert Frederick Blum
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
artist born in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
.
He was employed for a time in a lithographic
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
shop, and studied at the McMicken Art School of Design
Art Academy of Cincinnati
The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, in Cincinnati, Ohio...
in Cincinnati, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, but he was practically self-taught, and early showed great and original talent.
He settled in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1879. After 1880, he made many annual trips to Europe. He visited Japan in 1890 and spent three years there; he had been interested in that country and its art for many years.
His first published sketches of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese jugglers appeared in the St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine
St. Nicholas Magazine was a popular children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873. The first editor was Mary Mapes Dodge, who continued her association with the magazine until her death in 1905. Dodge published work by the country's best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Francis Hodgson...
. His most important work is a large frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn 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. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
in the Mendelssohn Music Hall, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, Music and the Dance (1895). His pen-and-ink work for the Century Magazine attracted wide attention, as did his illustrations for Sir Edwin Arnold's
Edwin Arnold
Sir Edwin Arnold CSI CIE was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work, The Light of Asia.-Biography:...
Japonica.
William Jacob Baer
William Jacob Baer considered the foremost American miniature painter was born in Cincinnati, Ohio January 29, 1860 and died in East Orange, New Jersey in 1941....
, was the cover of Scribner's Magazine
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 Scribner's Monthly...
for May 1893, and was one of the earliest pieces of color printing
Color printing
Color printing or Colour printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color...
for an American magazine. In Scribner's for 1893 appeared also his Artist's Letters from Japan. He was an admirer of Mariano Fortuny
Mariano Fortuny (painter)
Marià Fortuny i Marsal , known more simply as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny, was a Catalan painter...
, whose methods somewhat influenced his work.
Blum's Venetian pictures, such as A Bright Day at Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
(1882), had lively charm and beauty. His oil painting The Venetian Beadstringers (1889) was a popular work. He died on 8 June 1903 in New York City.
He was a member of the National Academy of Design
National Academy of Design
The National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, founded in New York City as the National Academy of Design – known simply as the "National Academy" – is an honorary association of American artists founded in 1825 by Samuel F. B. Morse, Asher B. Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E...
, being elected after his exhibition in 1892 of The Ameya; and was president of the Painters in Pastel. Although an excellent draughtsman
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
and etcher, it was as a colorist that he chiefly excelled.