Beggar Woman (Study for The Eternal City)
Peter Blume
American, 1906–1992
1933
A finely detailed pencil-on-paper study in which Blume assembles a crumbling brick arch, broken classical sculptures, and a lone beggar to work out the visual allegory for his painting The Eternal City.
What strikes you is the clinical clarity of each surface—the flaky bricks, weathered marble fragments, and the beggar’s worn clothing—set against a wide, empty white space that isolates the scene like a mise-en-scène of ruin.
The drawing fuses meticulous academic draftsmanship with surreal juxtaposition to dramatize the collision of classical grandeur and modern poverty, signalling Blume’s role in interwar American art that used classical ruin to critique contemporary social and political decay.
Medium
Pencil on paper
Dimensions
11 3/4 x 9 3/8" (30 x 23.8 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.
Accession
242.1954
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
