Blum Veniamin Iosifovich (July 20, 1861, Odessa – 1919 [or 1921]) – landscape painter and educator
(According to unverified sources, Veniamin Blum was a Karaite who had converted to Russian Orthodoxy.) His artistic work was influenced by the Peredvizhniki (Itinerant) painters, and he was critical of Impressionism and Modernism.

From 1879 to 1886, Veniamin Blum studied at the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. In 1895, he opened and headed a School of Drawing, Painting, Sculpture, and Draftsmanship in Riga, which included general education classes. This school successfully competed with the Riga City Art School, which had been established in 1873. The curriculum was built around two core ideas: to resist Baltic German culture and to promote Russian culture.

In 1905, Blum founded a secondary technical school on Kurmanovskaya Street 9 in Riga. Among his students were many notable Latvian artists, including A. Cīrulis, J. Jaunsudrabiņš, P. Kalve, P. Krastiņš, V. Matveyev, J. Plase, E. Melderis, E. Veilands, K. Zemdega, and others.

In 1919, Veniamin Blum established the first evening high school for adults in postwar Riga, which operated until the mid-1929s.

Veniamin Blum received two second-class silver medals in 1883 and 1885 and was awarded the title of Artist 3rd Degree on October 24, 1886

Sources:

Mākslas un arhitektūra biogrāfijas. Rīga: Latvijas enciklopēdijas, 1995, Vol. 72.

The artist registry lists him with the patronymic Iosilevich: Art Union Registry artru.info