Robert Frederick Blum

Robert Blum is best remembered for his pictures of Japan, painted with a light, sparkling touch: craftsmen at work, women in kimono, jugglers and street scenes. He was equally at home in oil, pastel, watercolour and pen, and his work always has a quick, fresh, observed feel.

Born in Cincinnati in 1857, he trained at the McMicken School of Design and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and worked in a lithography shop before settling in New York in 1879. He travelled to Venice, Toledo, Madrid and the Netherlands, then in 1890 went to Japan and stayed three years. Later he painted the large frieze Music and the Dance for Mendelssohn Hall in New York. He was president of the Painters in Pastel. He died in 1903, aged 45. His work is in the Metropolitan Museum and the Brooklyn Museum.

The Cloisonne Maker shows his interest in Japanese craftsmanship.