Laguna with Steamers and Gondolas
Robert Frederick Blum
American Art
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.
MEDIUM
Etching in black ink on cream, medium thick, slightly textured wove Japan 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) (show scale)
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"
Artist's stamp in lower margin
COLLECTIONS
American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER
11.579
CREDIT LINE
Gift of the Cincinnati Museum Association
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is not on view
CAPTION
Robert Frederick Blum (American, 1857–1903). Laguna with Steamers and Gondolas, 1885. Etching in black ink on cream, medium thick, slightly textured wove Japan paper, sheet: 10 5/16 x 15 3/8 in. (26.2 x 39.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Cincinnati Museum Association, 11.579 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 11.579_PS1.jpg)
IMAGE
overall, 11.579_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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