Robert Frederik Blum was born into a troubled time. When he saw the light of day in Cincinnati, the Civil War was raging in what is now the United States. His parents were immigrants of German descent. Blum's father had made the adventurous journey from Germany across the Atlantic to New Orleans on a sailing ship. Influenced by these experiences and life in the German Quarter Over-the-Rhine, where hard work was the order of the day, Robert Frederik Blum's parents were not thrilled that their son loved drawing.
At the age of 16, the talented young Robert could no longer be contained and left high school to train as a lithographer. In addition, he attended evening art classes. At a festival where Japanese fans were sold, he is said to have first become aware of Japanese culture and immediately purchased several copies for drawing studies. Later, while attending art school in Philadelphia, he finally lost his heart to the Far Eastern country at a Japan exhibition. However, his desire for travel and adventure first took him to Europe, where he further developed his Impressionist painting technique in oil and watercolor in cities such as Madrid and Venice.
A new world opened up for the artist when he got his hands on pastels. Blum, who already had a great talent for bringing light and mood not only visibly but almost tangibly to the canvas, perfected his technique with the use of this new color material. Pastels made it possible for him to capture for eternity an even more fleeting, elusive atmosphere. Now he could capture the subdued light even more delicately and poetically. When Robert Frederik Blum is 33 years old, he embarks on a journey he has dreamed of since his youth. He sets off for Japan. In America at the end of the 19th century, people have only the faintest idea of how they live in Japan. At the same time, the people's enthusiasm and inquisitiveness about the country is growing. Robert Frederik Blum is commissioned by a magazine to capture the daily life of the people in Japan in pictures. Once there, he is overwhelmed by the life and culture of the Japanese. He portrays everyday scenes, faces, mothers with children, and ornate robes. He becomes the first American artist to paint images of Japan and bring them to his homeland.
Robert Frederik Blum's position in the art world of his time was outstanding. His works had made him famous and he counted some of the greatest artists of the time among his close friends. At the age of 64, he died in New York after contracting pneumonia. His great love, Flora de Stephano, whom Blum had painted several times, claimed to be his widow after his death. She then received a small sum of money, some of the artist's personal belongings and three of his works.
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.jpg "The Ameya by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Two Idlers by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for Girl with Tambourine,")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Kneeling Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for standing woman, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Sketch of Standing Female Nude, Possibly for Moods to Music Mural by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Kneeling Woman, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for a Standing Woman, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for left hand, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for a seated woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for Festoons,")
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.jpg "Study for a Dancing Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for a Dancing Woman,")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1449722).jpg "Men And Donkeys, Rome by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a dancing woman, \"Moods to Music,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for a woman, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a dancing woman, Moods to Music, Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "View of Rome, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for Standing Boy with Kid,")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for Leader of the Procession, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a dancing woman, \"Moods to Music,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "View of Venice, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Venetian Canal and Boats, No. 8 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Kneeling Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for the Left Maenad,")
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.jpg "Study for a Procession, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for a group, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Standing Woman with Child, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Men and Donkeys, Rome by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Dancing Woman,")
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.jpg "Artist in the Studio by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Head of a Girl by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Japanese Girl, 1890 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Procession, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Men and Donkeys, Rome by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman Holding a Child, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Interior, Japan by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "San Lorenzo in Miranda, Rome, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for the entrance of a temple, \"Vintage Festival\", Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Where Sake is Sold, 1890 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "View of Venice, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Laguna with Steamers and Gondolas, 1885 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a seated woman, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Kneeling Woman,")
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.jpg "Canal in Venice, San Trovaso Quarter by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman Holding a Child,")
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.jpg "Standing Male Figure in Seventeenth-century Costume, 1876-77 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Seated Woman,")
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.jpg "Feast of the Ascension celebration, Venice, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Figure by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Feast of the Ascension Celebration, Venice, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Street Vendor by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "View of Venice, Italy by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Standing Woman, \"Moods to Music,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "The Flower Market, Tokyo by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman,")
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.jpg "Bead Stringers, Venice by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Seated Woman Holding a Child,")
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.jpg "Study for dancing women,")
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.jpg "Study for a Dancing Woman,")
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.jpg "Venetian Canal and Bridges by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Bay Window by Robert Frederick Blum")
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_Two_figures_and_Unidentife_-_(MeisterDrucke-1566642).jpg "Exterior Wall: Bay, Balcony, and Cornice (recto); Two Figures and Unidentified Lines (verso), 1882 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Street Scene, Venice, 1882 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Seated Woman,")
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.jpg "Study for the Landscape,")
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.jpg "Study for a Woman,")
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.jpg "Two Japanese Fishing Boats on Shore by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Japanese Girl Sewing, 1890 by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Man by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Venetian Lace Makers by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Head of a Girl, Profile by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Figures in a Crowd by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for a Procession, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for Woman, “Vintage Festival,” Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Figural Study by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Man by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "At Work Heaping Brush on Smouldering Fires by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Girl Reading by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Roof Terrace by Robert Frederick Blum")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1666370).jpg "Street Scene in Ikao, Japan by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Woman by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Fishing Boats, Japan by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "The Bath by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "The Grand Canal, Venice by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Venetian Canal and Bridges by Robert Frederick Blum")
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.jpg "Study for standing boy with kid, \"Vintage Festival,\" Mendelssohn Glee Club, New York, NY by Robert Frederick Blum")
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