Bertha Lum

1869-1954

Sisters

color woodblock print on tissue-thin paper, signed and numbered in pencil on the bottom margin, no 48, copyright 07 by Bertha Lum, from an edition of at least 146, probably self-carved and possibly printed in Japan, published by the artist in 1907

40.6 by 8.7 cm

Bertha Boynton Bull was born in Tipton, Iowa in May 1869. Her father was a lawyer but both her parents were amateur artists. In 1895, Bertha enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago in the design department, which she supplemented with classes at the Holme School of Illustration, followed by several years studying stained glass design with Anne Weston. In 1903, she married a prominent lawyer in Minneapolis, Burt Francis Lum. The newlyweds went to Japan on their honeymoon. Although Lum had little predisposition towards Japan and woodblock prints, she nevertheless searched for woodblock carving tools on behalf of a friend from the institute and was dismayed to discover the scarcity of woodblock print craftsmen. On her last day in Japan, Lum finally found a reproduction studio and shop and managed to glean enough information from her one-hour visit to pique her interest and get her started.

Upon her return to Minneapolis, Lum managed to produce at least nine woodblock print designs on her own. She was likely aided in her efforts by recent publications on woodblock printing, such as T. Tokuno's Japanese Wood-Cutting and Wood-Cut Printing (Smithsonian, 1892), or even more certainly, Arthur Wesley Dow's 1899 arts manual, Composition: A Series of Exercises in Art Structure for the Use of Students and Teachers. Although Lum's early prints were highly simplified riffs on ukiyo-e classics, the results are strikingly poetic and effective.

In 1907, Lum returned to Japan for a fourteen-week period to seek out more vigorous training in printmaking. Armed with one letter of introduction to a prominent scholar, she was fortunate enough to be admitted to the block-carving studio of Igami Bonkotsu (1875-1933).

References:
Meech & Weisberg, Japonisme Comes to America, 1990, pp. 127-155
Gravalos & Pulin, American Printmakers: Bertha Lum, 1991, cat. p. 94
Yokohama Museum of Art, Eyes Towards Asia: Ukiyo-e Artists from Abroad, 1996, p. 50, no. 44
(inv. no. 10-2749)

price: $900