Robert Blum (American, 1857-1903) was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857.  He was talented in many media, earning a reputation as a pen and ink draftsman, watercolorist, pastelist, etcher, oil painter, and 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.  He remained there until the end of August, 1892, producing a number of elegant Japanese subject paintings in oil and pastel.  When he returned to NYC, Blum completed a series of murals for the Mendelssohn Glee Club in NYC. He lived in relative seclusion after 1893.  He died in New York City in 1903.

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

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

Exhibited: PAFA, 1878, 1880-81, 1889, 1893-94; NAD, 1881-1893; Brooklyn AA, 1881-82; Boston AC; MMA; Paris Expo. 1889 (medals); AIC; Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (gold); CAM, 1905, 1966; Carnegie Inst. 1896; American Art Gal, 1887; Royal Acad. Exhib., London, 1888; Chicago Interstate Exhib., 1890; Universal Expo, St. Louis, 1904; Berlin Photographic Co, NYC, 1913

Work: CAM; BM; MMA; Otesaga Hotel, Cooperstown, NYResources: Bruce Weber, "Robert Frederick Blum and His Mileu"; Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age; Gerdts, American Artists in Japan, 7-8; 300 Years of American Art, 508; Baigell, Dictionary