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Lot description
Bertha Lum (American, 1869-1954). Hand-painted woodcut titled "Lung Fu Sou (Chinese Curio Market)," 1923. Hand colored with gouache. Pencil inscription along the lower edge "Copyright 1923 by Bertha Lum." Bertha Lum, trained as an artist at the Art Institute of Chicago, was first introduced to the influences of Japanese art by Arthur Wesley Dow in his book "Composition" (1899). She would go on to be one of the earliest female artists heavily influenced by the Japonisme style. She first visited Japan on her honeymoon in 1903 where she searched for a print maker her could teach her how to cut traditional ukiyo-e prints. She proved unsuccessful in this first attempt, only succeeding in purchasing woodcutting tools from a shop that she began to use upon her return to Minneapolis. During a 14-week stay in 1907, she was introduced to block cutter Igami Bonkutsu and worked with him for two months, eventually moving on to the printer Nishimura Kamakichi with whom she worked for another month. She cut and colored blocks herself for three years before hiring cutters and printers to work for her in her winter home in Tokyo in 1911. She had numerous exhibitions in the following decades, exhibiting at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the New York Public Library.