WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture

Artists›Peter Blume

Peter Blume

Peter Blume

1906

WA-00012941

PaintingExpressionismSurrealismCubism

Representation

None documented

46

Institutional Exhibitions

118

Works in Collection

146

Assets Indexed

5

Authority-backed Facts

0

Publications Referenced

90%

Profile Completeness

Cultural Positioning

Influence Graph

No influence edges encoded yet.

Authority Records (2)

WikidataQ2990693

Selected Institutional Exhibitions

View all exhibitions →

No image

Recent Acquisitions: Drawings

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1981

No image

Art of the Twenties

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1979–1980

No image

Between World Wars: Drawing in Europe and America

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1976

No image

In the Twenties

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1975

No image

Portraits

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1973–1974

No image

Drawn in America

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1972

No image

The Artist as Adversary

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1971

No image

American Drawings and Watercolors: A Selection from the Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969–1970

No image

Twentieth-Century Art from the Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller Collection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1969

No image

Drawings from the Museum Collections: A Selection

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1964–1965

No image

Modern Allegories

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1961–1962

No image

America Seen: Between The Wars

Museum of Modern Art, New York

1961

Field Verification (3 fields)

1 cross-verified · 2 single-source

Birth yearArtsy· 85%✓
NationalityWikidata + Artsy· 92%
LocationArtsy + Wikidata· 85%

Source Registry (3)

MoMA bulk 2026-05-04https://www.moma.org/artists/617
Tier 1 · Institutional92%
Artsy (bulk)https://www.artsy.net/artist/peter-blume
Tier 1 · Institutional85%
Artist Index
Tier 3 · Scraped/inferred35%

About

Why this artist matters now

Peter Blume was an American painter and sculptor whose work synthesized folk art, Precisionism, and Surrealism into densely layered, meticulously rendered compositions. His paintings combined the sharp-focus realism and geometric order of Precisionism with unexpected dreamlike elements and spatial distortions drawn from Surrealist practice. Working across the twentieth century, Blume developed a distinctive visual language that resisted easy categorization, moving fluidly between abstraction and representation while maintaining an underlying commitment to craft and formal precision.

Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 29d ago

Graph relationships

Taste overlap and adjacency

Movement

Expressionism

Medium

Painting

Related Artists

12 in graph

Institutional

Museum Collections

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Modern ArtNew York Whitney Museum of American Art

Canonical record

Artworks (118)

Cartoon for "Recollection of the Flood"

1968 · Charcoal on paper

41 3/8 × 46 7/8 in. (105.1 × 119.1 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study Number 5 for "Recollection of the Flood"

1968 · Enamel on Masonite

sight: 16 1/8 × 20 5/8 in. (41 × 52.4 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Children in the Tree

1961 · Oil on canvas

20 1/8 x 34 1/4 in. (51.1 x 87 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two Sketches of a Nude Woman

Two Sketches of a Nude Woman

1959 · Pen and black ink on white wove paper, tipped onto gray wove paper

32.5 × 47.3 cm (12 13/16 × 18 5/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

1957 · Black ink on paper

8 3/8 × 11 1/8 in. (21.3 × 28.2 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Easter Island and Rana Raraku

Easter Island and Rana Raraku

1954 · Ink on paper on colored paper

18 1/2 x 25 1/4" (47 x 64.2 cm)

Museum of Modern Art

Castle of Euryalus

1952 · Oil on linen, mounted on Masonite

11 1/8 in. × 49 in. (28.3 × 124.5 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Rock

1944 · Oil on canvas

146.4 × 188.9 cm (57 5/8 × 74 3/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Collage composed of colored pastels, charcoal, black chalk, and cut-out painted elements of wove paper on tan tracing paper, squared in graphite and charcoal, tipped onto tannish-green wove paper

14.1 × 19 cm (5 9/16 × 7 1/2 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping, on cream wove paper, tipped onto ivory wove paper

21.5 × 22.7 cm (8 1/2 × 8 15/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for Flowering Stump

Study for Flowering Stump

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping, on tan wove paper, tipped onto ivory wove paper

21.5 × 27.7 cm (8 1/2 × 10 15/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Graphite on cream wove paper, tipped onto ivory wove paper

21.6 × 27.9 cm (8 9/16 × 11 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping, on ivory wove paper, tipped onto cream wove paper

21.6 × 20.8 cm (8 9/16 × 8 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for Excavation

Study for Excavation

1943 · Graphite on cream wove paper, tipped onto blue wove paper

18.4 × 23.8 cm (7 1/4 × 9 3/8 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Graphite on cream wove paper (discolored to tan), tipped on ivory wove paper

16.2 × 21.6 cm (6 7/16 × 8 9/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Charcoal and brown chalk, with stumping, on tan tracing paper, tipped onto off-white wove paper

26.1 × 35.6 cm (10 5/16 × 14 1/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for Excavation

Study for Excavation

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping, on tan wove paper, tipped onto dark red wove paper

21.5 × 27.9 cm (8 1/2 × 11 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping, on ivory wove paper, tipped onto dark green wove paper

16.7 × 20.4 cm (6 5/8 × 8 1/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping, on cream wove paper, tipped onto buff wove paper, squared in charcoal

28 × 35.6 cm (11 1/16 × 14 1/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Charcoal, with stumping and touches of graphite, on cream tracing paper

42.2 × 55.3 cm (16 5/8 × 21 13/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock (recto); Study for The Rock (verso)

Study for The Rock (recto); Study for The Rock (verso)

1943 · Graphite on ivory wove paper (recto and verso) tipped onto light brown wove paper

9.8 × 12 cm (3 7/8 × 4 3/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Pen and blue ink on tan wove paper, tipped onto light brown wove paper

10.5 × 10.3 cm (4 3/16 × 4 1/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Graphite on ivory wove paper, tipped onto light brown wove paper

8.1 × 8.2 cm (3 1/4 × 3 1/4 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

Study for The Rock

Study for The Rock

1943 · Pen and blue ink on cream wove paper, tipped onto light brown wove paper

9.5 × 8.3 cm (3 3/4 × 3 5/16 in.)

Art Institute of Chicago

View all 118 artworks →

Artwork sources (4)

118 published of 136 catalogued · 128 with image

Art Institute Chicago
92 published92 img
MoMA
18 publishedof 36 catalogued36 img
The Met
7 published
Whitney
1 published

Record

Images

10 assets

Artsy artist portrait

Artsy

Artsy artist portrait

Artsy

White Factory (1928) by Peter Blume

Wikimedia Commons (Instagram fallback)

Blume Peter Vegetable Dinner 1927 Smithsonian American Art Museum

Wikimedia Commons (Instagram fallback)

Blume Peter Banyan Tree 1961 Smithsonian American Art Museum

Wikimedia Commons (Instagram fallback)

Blume Peter Buoy Art Institute of Chicago

Wikimedia Commons (Instagram fallback)

Blume Peter the Rock Art Institute of Chicago

Wikimedia Commons (Instagram fallback)

Peter Blume Beatty's Barn

Wikimedia Commons (Instagram fallback)

View all 10 media items →

Relationships

8

Movements4

Expressionism Surrealism Cubism Realism

Collections4

The Metropolitan Museum of Art Art Institute of Chicago Museum of Modern Art Whitney Museum of American Art

Institutional

Representation & Collections

In collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

In collection

Art Institute of Chicago

In collection

Museum of Modern Art

New York, US

In collection

Whitney Museum of American Art