Bead Stringers, Venice
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 31 × 20.7 cm (12 1/4 × 8 3/16 in.); Sheet: 39 × 26.5 cm (15 3/8 × 10 7/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
87492
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Robert Frederick Blum’s “Bead Stringers, Venice” (1886) offers a quiet view of Venetian craftswomen at work. The etching depicts figures absorbed in the delicate task of threading glass beads, a trade long associated with the city’s renowned glass industry. Rendered on ivory laid paper, the print preserves the soft light and intimate interior that would have characterized such workshops in the late nineteenth century. Etching allowed Blum to achieve fine lines and subtle tonal gradations, qualities that suited both the subject’s textures and the desire to share detailed scenes with a broader public. Multiple impressions could be pulled from a single plate, making the image more widely available than a unique painting. Today the work resides in the Prints and Drawings collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, where it continues to illustrate both the technical artistry of etching and the everyday rhythms of Venetian life in the 1880s.
About the Artist
Robert Frederick Blum · 1857–1903
American mural painter. Comment on works: painter