Collections: American Art: Laguna with Steamers and Gondolas

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Laguna with Steamers and Gondolas

Although interested in Japanese art since his youth, Robert Blum developed a more sophisticated understanding of its aesthetics through his close contact with James McNeill Whistler in Venice—the setting of this work—during the summer of 1880. From Whistler he learned to create compositional tensions between blank areas and those with motifs, as well as to achieve tonal variations in etching with sketchy lines and hand-inked plates. The latter technique produced the subtle grays in the sky of this work.

• Artist: Robert Frederick Blum, American, 1857-1903
• Medium: Etching in black ink on cream, medium thick, slightly textured wove paper
• Dates: 1885
• Dimensions: Sheet: 10 5/16 x 15 3/8 in. (26.2 x 39.1 cm) Image: 7 5/8 x 8 7/16 in. (19.4 x 21.4 cm)
• Signature: Etched lower left: "Blum / 85 Venice" and stamped in red below lower right corner of image: "Blum" within square
• Inscriptions: Inscribed in pencil at lower left of sheet: "261"
• Collections: American Art
• Museum Location: This item is not on view
• Accession Number: 11.579
• Credit Line: Gift of the Cincinnati Museum Association
• Image: Overall, 11.579_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
Robert Frederick Blum (American, 1857-1903). Laguna with Steamers and Gondolas, 1885. Etching in black ink on cream, medium thick, slightly textured wove paper, Sheet: 10 5/16 x 15 3/8 in. (26.2 x 39.1 cm) Image: 7 5/8 x 8 7/16 in. (19.4 x 21.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Cincinnati Museum Association, 11.579 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 11.579_PS1.jpg)