Gondolas, Grand Canal, Venice
Medium
Watercolor over traces of black chalk on ivory wove paper
Dimensions
24.1 × 32.6 cm (9 1/2 × 12 7/8 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
42733
Art Historical Context
Robert Frederick Blum’s *Gondolas, Grand Canal, Venice* captures the timeless romance of the city’s waterways through a delicate interplay of light reflection. Created on ivory wove paper with watercolor over faint black chalk, the small drawing invites viewers to experience Venice’s distinctive urban rhythm from the vantage point of a passing gondola. The intimate scale—roughly the size of a sheet of stationery—suggests an artist working on site, quickly noting the graceful silhouettes of the boats and the shimmering surface of the water. Watercolor’s translucent washes are ideally suited to...
About the Artist
Robert Frederick Blum · 1857–1903
American mural painter. Comment on works: painter