Sketches of Venice-The Lido
Robert Frederick BLUM
(American, 1857-1903)
Sketches of Venice-The Lido
Date1890
Mediumoil on panel
DimensionsOverall: 9 3/8 x 12 5/8 in. (23.8 x 32.1 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Bequest of Margaret Mallory
Object number1998.50.15
Subject(s)
- architecture
- buildings
- men
- women
- ocean
- ocean
Collection
- 19th century American
On View
On viewLabel TextDubbed “Blumtuny” by his artist-friends because of his overt emulation of the brilliant palette and bravura brushwork of the Spanish genre painter, Mariano Fortuny, Blum was an early champion of the pastel medium. He founded the Society of Painters in Pastels with his close friend, William Merritt Chase. Frequent visits to Venice, where he painted alongside his countrymen, Chase and James McNeill Whistler, produced dazzling essays like this one; an approximation in oil of the exquisite effects of light and texture that he was able to capture in his pastels. An admirer of Blum’s pastels, Oscar Wilde commented that they “give me the sensation of eating yellow satin” – a metaphor that is just as applicable to this brilliant melange of vignettes of “The Floating City.”
