biography of Robert Frederick BLUM (1857-1903)

Birth place: Cincinnati, OH

Death place: NYC

Addresses: Cincinnati, OH; NYC

Profession: Painter, illustrator, mural painter

Studied: Apprenticed at sixteen to a lithographic house; Old Mechanics Inst., evening classes led by Frank Duveneck, 1874-75; McMicken Art Sch. Design, Cincinnati, 1876; PAFA, 1876

Exhibited: PAFA, 1878, 1880-81, 1889, 1893-94, 1905; NAD, 1881-1893; Brooklyn AA, 1881-82, 1885; Boston AC, 1882, 1885-86, 1889; MMA, 1883-84; Paris Expo., 1889 (medals), 1900 (med.); AIC; Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (gold); Cincinnati Art Mus., 1905, 1966; M. Knoedler, NY 1904; Carnegie Inst., 1896 (first annual), 1923 (solo); Eastern Kentucky Univ., 1974; American Art Gal., 1887; Royal Acad. Exhib., London,1888; Chicago Interstate Exhib., 1890; Universal Expo., St. Louis, 1904; Berlin Photographic Co., NYC, 1913 (memorial)

Member: ANA, 1892; NA, 1893; SAA; AWCS; Soc. Mural Painters; Soc. Painters of Pastel, NY (pres.)

Work: CAM; BM; MMA; Otesaga Hotel, Cooperstown, NY

Comments: Blum was talented in many media, earning a reputation as a pen and ink draughtsman, watercolorist, pastellist, etcher, oil painter, and finally as a muralist. In 1880, he left Cincinnati for Venice, where he joined Frank Duveneck's circle of young painters and became acquainted with Whistler, whose aesthetics had an important influence on him. Blum made many trips to Europe during the 1880s but also established a studio in NYC, where he was friendly with William M. Chase and John Twachtman. In 1890 he went to Japan to prepare the illustrations for Sir Edwin Arnold's Japonica (pub. in 1891 by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York). He remained there until the end of August, 1892, producing (besides his work for Scribner"s) a number of elegant Japanese subject painings in oil and pastel. When he returned to NYC, Blum completed a series of murals for the Mendelssohn Glee Club in NYC (now preserved in the Brooklyn Mus.). He lived in relative seclusion after 1893. Position: illus. for Scribner's beginning 1879. Auth., "An Artist in Japan," Scribner's 13 (May 1893).

Sources: Bruce Weber, "Robert Frederick Blum (1857-1903) and His Mileu," Ph.D diss., City Univ. of NY, 1985; Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age, 39-40 (w/illus.); Gerdts, American Artists in Japan, 7-8; 300 Years of American Art, 508; Baigell, Dictionary.