Alice Little

This sketch by Robert Frederick Blum depicts a child character in simple line work, likely a study for newspaper illustration. By the 1880s, American newspapers increasingly featured recurring characters and narrative sequences that would establish the visual foundations of comic strips. Artists working in this period developed the visual shorthand—expressive line, profile poses, gestural drawing—that newspapers demanded for rapid reproduction. Blum's work exemplifies the transition toward sequential storytelling in popular press, where individual character sketches formed the basis for strips that would appear in Sunday supplements and dailies throughout the 1890s.