Study for Key West Beach

Peter Blume

1940

A small Conté crayon and pencil study in which Peter Blume sketches an oversized, oddly humanized seabird-like figure to probe scale, character, and mood for his Key West Beach composition.

You’re struck by the bird’s bulbous beak and toothlike marks, its windswept crest and dense, velvety charcoal shadows that dissolve into soft smudges suggesting sea and sky.

As a preparatory drawing from 1940, it reveals how American artists influenced by surrealism used intimate studies to turn ordinary coastal imagery into uncanny, symbolic scenes that blur realism and fantasy.

Palette

Art Terms

Drawing Pencil Surrealism Sketch Monochrome Figurative

Exhibitions

American Drawings and Watercolors: A Selection from the Collection

1969

New Acquisitions: The Collection of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

1936

Summer Exhibition: Painting and Sculpture

1930

Twenty Lithographs: Graphic Art Processes

1941