Peter Blume
Value#92
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
3/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
9/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
4/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
3/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
3/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
Auction Record
$307,200
Winter
Christie's New York
- Pricing
- Liquidity
- Low - Limited secondary market activity; works appear sporadically
- Comparables
- Market Comparable Artists
- Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth, George Ault, Stefan Hirsch (Precisionism); Paul Cadmus, Jared French, George Tooker (Magic Realism/Social Realism)
- Collector Base
- American art collectors, institutional collectors, Magic Realism specialists
- Auction History
- Work
- Winter
- Price
- $307,200 USD
- Sale Date
- 2006
- Year Created
- 1964
- Auction House
- Christie's New York
- Auction Activity
- Recent Sales
- 2024: Study for Tree; 2023: Various prints/drawings; 2022: Multiple works; 2021-2020: Autumn oil painting, drawings, prints
- Annual Volume
- Low - sporadic offerings, typically 5-10 lots annually
- Market Presence
- Primarily regional auction houses (Freeman's, Hindman, STAIR, Heritage) with occasional Christie's/major house appearances
- Sell Through Rate
- 33.3% over last 36 months (per Artsy data)
- Total Lots Tracked
- 41+ artworks at auction since 2004
- Market Position
- Market Positioning
- Historical American Modernist - Estate market phase
Institutional Presence
- Exhibitions
- Major Solo Exhibitions
Title Year Venue Significance Peter Blume: Nature and Metamorphosis — Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts First major retrospective since 1976; 56 paintings, 103 drawings; traveled to Wadsworth Atheneum (July-September 2015) Peter Blume (1906-1992) — ACA Galleries, New York Estate exhibition concurrent with PAFA retrospective — 1976 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago Previous major retrospective — 1968 Kennedy Galleries, New York — Paintings and Drawings in Retrospect, 1925 to 1964 1964 — — The Rock exhibition 1949 Durlacher Gallery, New York Resoundingly positive critical acclaim The Eternal City (one-painting exhibition) 1937 Julian Levy Galleries, Manhattan Generated enormous controversy — 1930 Daniel Gallery, New York First solo exhibition featuring Parade - Major Group Exhibitions
- Whitney Biennial (multiple years - work collected by Whitney from Biennial exhibitions)
- Carnegie International Exhibition (1934 - First Prize winner; 1950 - voted best picture by visitors)
- MoMA 'Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism' (1936)
- MoMA 'American Realists and Magic Realists' (1943)
- Surrealism USA, National Academy of Design
- Whitney Museum ongoing collection displays (Real/Surreal 2011-2012; Collecting Biennials 2010; Modernisms 2007-2008)
- The Whitney's Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965 (2019-present)
- Museum Collections
- Tier 1 Museums
Works Institution Significance 18 works online including The Eternal City (1934-37), Parade (1930) Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York Acquired The Eternal City in 1943 during WWII; Parade currently on view Gallery 521 7 works including Light of the World (1932), Man of Sorrows (1951) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York — 93 artworks including The Rock (1944-48) and extensive preparatory studies Art Institute of Chicago Major repository of The Rock series with 90+ preparatory drawings Multiple works (confirmed via museum API data) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York — Multiple works including Vegetable Dinner (1927) Smithsonian American Art Museum — - Tier 2 Museums
- Cleveland Museum of ArtPennsylvania Academy of Fine ArtsPrinceton University Art MuseumCarnegie Museum of Art, PittsburghMuseum of Fine Arts, BostonWadsworth Atheneum, Hartford
- Total Museum Works
- 130+ works across major institutions (per museum API data)
- Awards and Recognition
- Guggenheim Fellowship (1932-1933, renewed 1936)
- First Prize, Carnegie International Exhibition (1934) for South of Scranton
- Carnegie International Exhibition - voted best picture by visitors (1950) for The Rock
- Rockefeller family patronage throughout career
- National Academy of Design Associate Member (1948), Full Member (1956)
Career & Biography
- Career
- 1924
- Struck out on own, established independent practice
- 1926
- Established own studio in Manhattan; first dealer Charles Daniel Gallery; first sale (Cyclamen, 1925)
- 1931
- Married Grace Douglas Gibbs Craton
- 1934
- First major recognition - First Prize at Carnegie International Exhibition for South of Scranton
- 1936
- Renewed Guggenheim Fellowship
- 1937
- The Eternal City exhibited at Julian Levy Galleries - major controversy
- 1943
- MoMA acquired The Eternal City when Mussolini deposed
- 1948
- Elected Associate Member, National Academy of Design
- 1956
- Became full member, National Academy of Design
- 1976
- Last major retrospective before death
- 1929-1930
- Settled in Sherman, Connecticut (remained primary residence for life)
- 1932-1933
- Guggenheim Fellowship - spent year in Italy
- 2014-2015
- First major retrospective since 1976 at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts
- Working Method
- Exceptionally slow, painstaking worker in manner of early Netherlandish masters; created hundreds of preparatory drawings for each major work (500+ studies for The Rock); practice involved automatic drawing techniques but always in service of precisely rendered final paintings
- Identity
- Birth Death
- October 27, 1906 (Smorgon, Russia/now Belarus) - November 30, 1992 (New Milford, Connecticut)
- Major Themes
- Destruction and restoration, metamorphosis, political power, regeneration, human struggle against modern forces, anti-fascism
- Artistic Context
- Renaissance technique (Italian and Northern European), folk art, Precisionism, Cubism, Parisian Purism, Raphael and Isaac Soyer, Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth Associated with Magic Realism but rejected labels; refused André Breton's invitation to join Surrealists stating he 'wasn't a Surrealist in that sense'; maintained independent course; focused on meticulous rendering of familiar objects in unexpected juxtapositions; emphasized transformation and regeneration themes
Artistic Profile
- Influences
- Influenced
- Late 20th-century narrative painting, American Magic Realism movement, contemporary artists interested in political allegory and meticulous realism
- Themes and Subjects
- Signature Motifs
- Stones and geological formationsArchitectural ruins and fragmentsIndustrial girders and constructionMedieval armorReligious iconographyLandscape transformationsFigures in surreal relationships to environment
- Movements and Periods
- Stylistic Classification
- Magic Realism (primary but contested); Precisionism (early); American Surrealism (associated but rejected by artist); Social Realism (political works); Independent Modernist
- Techniques and Mediums
- Meticulous Renaissance-influenced renderingHundreds of preparatory drawings per major workAutomatic drawing in preliminary studiesPrecise oil painting techniqueAlteration of scale for psychological effectDreamlike spatial juxtapositionsComposite imagery from multiple observationsSlow, painstaking execution (5-7 years for major works)
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Catalogue Raisonne
- No comprehensive catalogue raisonné published
- Critical Consensus
- Recognized as highly original, independent artist who defied easy categorization; 'Magic Realism' closest descriptor but inadequate; acknowledged as one of America's best-known painters in 1930s-1940s; meticulous technical master; significant but somewhat neglected figure in American art history; major scholarly reassessment via 2014-2015 retrospective
- Contemporary Relevance
- Renewed scholarly interest in 2010s; recognized as central figure in development of American Modernism; important for understanding intersection of Surrealism, Precisionism, and social commentary in American art
- Publications and Media
- Major Publications
Date Author Context Publication February 2015 Donald Kuspit — Artforum January 15, 2015 Ken Johnson — New York Times December 1, 1992 Roberta Smith Obituary - described as 'painter of dreamlike narratives' whose 'obsessively detailed images made him one of this country's best-known painters in the 1930s and 40s' New York Times 2014-2015 — Dual reviews of PAFA retrospective; discussed Blume's complex relationship to Surrealism and his sophisticated extension of Renaissance art — — — Featured artist coverage (multiple articles) — — — Featured artist coverage — — — Featured artist coverage — - Documentary Coverage
- Exhibition catalogs, museum publications, art historical surveys of American Modernism, Magic Realism, and Surrealism in America
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Limited contemporary fair presence; estate represented through ACA Galleries
- Representation
- Note
- ACA Galleries represents the Peter Blume Estate; presented estate exhibition 2014-2015
- Estate
- ACA Galleries, New York (est. 1932)
- Address
- 529 West 20th Street, New York
- Works Available
- 12 works listed on Artnet including drawings, paintings, serigraphs with 'Price on Request'
- Market Structure
- Estate market - artist deceased 1992; limited primary market activity; secondary market through auctions and specialist dealers in American Modernism
- Historical Dealers
Period Significance Gallery 1926-1930s First dealer; one of few handling modern art at that time Charles Daniel Gallery 1930s Showed The Eternal City (1937) Julian Levy Galleries, New York 1950s Showed The Rock (1949); sold works like Paddies (1954-56) Durlacher Brothers, New York 1960s-1970s Major solo exhibition 1968 Kennedy Galleries, New York Mid-late 20th century Secondary market dealer Janet Fleisher Gallery, Philadelphia Contemporary Secondary market dealer Debra Force Fine Art 2024 Recent exhibition inclusion (September 2024) Forum Gallery, New York
- Geographic Reach
- Estate-controlled through ACA Galleries; secondary market works appear sporadically at auction; primarily works on paper and small studies available
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