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Toledo Water-Carrier

Toledo Water-Carrier

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Robert Frederick Blum

“Toledo Water-Carrier” was created in 1882 while Blum was traveling through Spain with fellow artist William Merritt Chase. Blum was interested in depicting scenes of Spain’s traditional, pre-industrial laborers. In this work, he depicted a water carrier (aguador) delivering the daily quota of water to a young woman, who gazes directly at the viewer. Three donkeys follow the water carrier. Donkeys and water carriers were popular elements in stereotypical American imaginings of Spain, and they appear in several of Blum’s sketches from his travels, as well as in contemporaneous fictional accounts of the country.
Artist
Robert Frederick Blum
(American, 1857 – 1903)
Title
Toledo Water-Carrier
Date
1882
Medium
Oil on panel
Dimensions
11 3/8 x 15 3/8 in. image
Credit
Gift of D. Frederick Baker from the Baker/Pisano Collection
Accession No.
2022.34.10
Classification
Paintings
Geography
United States

Related

1882, sold by Robert Frederick Blum to Thomas B. Clarke (New York, NY); 15 February 1899, sold by American Art Association (New York, NY) [Lot 144] to W. Carleton; by descent to Clifford Carleton; 30 November 1989, sold by Sotheby’s (New York, NY) [Lot 142] to Private collection; 17 July 2002, sold by Christie’s (New York, NY) [Lot 51] to D. Frederick Baker (New York, NY); August 2022, gifted to the Chazen Museum of Art

  • Ruud, Brandon and Corey Piper. "Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920." New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. p. 84, cat. no. 41

  • Americans in Spain: Painting and Travel, 1820-1920: Chrysler Museum of Art, 2/12/2021–10/3/2021

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