
Figures1881
Partial sketch of three figures. More about this work
About this work
Partial sketch of three figures.
Text from Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
How it was made
- Graphite
- Pencil. Graphite has been used for drawing since the 1500s; in 1795 Nicolas-Jacques Conté mixed it with clay, so its hardness could be graded.
Robert Frederick Blum
American, 1857–1903
Blum trained in Cincinnati and Philadelphia and became a leading American illustrator, admired for his deft pen work, pastels and etchings. In Venice in 1880 he worked in the circle of Frank Duveneck and was influenced by Whistler. From 1890 to 1892 he lived in Japan on assignment for Scribner’s Magazine, and Japanese subjects inspired his best-known paintings. He also painted murals for Mendelssohn Hall in New York.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1904-16-345
- Credit
- Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Type
- Drawing
- Department
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site











