The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Blum, Robert Frederick

BLUM, Robert Frederick, American artist: b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 9 July 1857; d. 1903. He became a lithographer's apprentice and attended night classes at a school of design in Cincinnati. He also studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. In 1879 he removed to New York and became one of the illustrators of Scribner's Magazine. After 1880 he made many annual trips to Europe. He visited Japan in 1890 and spent three years in that country. Many fine pastels are the fruit of this period. He became a National Academician in 1892. His best known work in oil is ‘The Venetian Beadstringers’ (1889), now in the Cincinnati Museum. In 1913 an exhibition of his works was held in New York and included the ‘Ameya,’ now in the Metropolitan Museum. Blum excelled as a pastellist and watercolorist. Consult The Studio (Winter Number 1900-01) and The International Studio (Vol. XXI, 1903).