Study of Hands and Branches

This sketch by Robert Frederick Blum demonstrates the observational drawing that underpinned his work as an illustrator and painter. The rapid pen studies of hands and gnarled branches reveal the artist's interest in capturing natural forms and human gesture with economy of line. Blum, an important American illustrator of the late nineteenth century, developed his technical skills through such studies before applying them to commercial work in periodicals and books. His approach to figure drawing influenced the visual vocabulary of American illustration during a period when newspapers and magazines were the primary vehicles for sequential and narrative imagery.