Untitled (Girls Saying Grace)
Medium
Etching on tan wove paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 16.9 × 24.1 cm (6 11/16 × 9 1/2 in.); Sheet: 31.5 × 66.2 cm (12 7/16 × 26 1/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
87494
Rights
Public Domain
Art Historical Context
Robert Frederick Blum’s 1885 etching “Untitled (Girls Saying Grace)” offers a quiet glimpse into a late-nineteenth-century domestic ritual. The small plate captures young girls with bowed heads, suggesting a moment of prayer before a meal and reflecting the era’s emphasis on family piety and simple moral lessons. Blum, working in an age when genre scenes of everyday life were widely appreciated, distills this intimate subject into a compact, evocative composition. Printed on tan wove paper, the etching reveals the medium’s capacity for fine linear detail and soft tonal gradations. Etchings such as this one allowed artists to reach broader audiences through multiple impressions, turning private moments into widely shared images. The modest plate size—roughly 6 11/16 by 9 1/2 inches—further concentrates the viewer’s attention on the girls’ gestures and the subtle play of light across the table. Now part of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Prints and Drawings collection, the work stands as a charming example of American etching’s golden age, when technical precision met affectionate storytelling.
About the Artist
Robert Frederick Blum · 1857–1903
American mural painter. Comment on works: painter