Seated Woman

A pen sketch by Robert Frederick Blum, American illustrator and painter (1857–1903). This study depicts a woman in period dress seated in three-quarter view, rendered with quick, economical lines characteristic of working sketches. Blum was known for his magazine illustrations and later became influential in American art circles through his travels to Japan and Venice. This drawing exemplifies the gestural approach to figure study common among late-nineteenth-century illustrators who worked for newspapers and periodicals—the foundation upon which sequential comic art would soon develop.