Collection
/
American Art

On the River

Bertha Lum

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

Bertha Lum’s engagement with Japonisme was more intense than many of her American contemporaries. She embraced not only Japanese subjects and aesthetics but also Japanese techniques of color woodblock printing, which she learned during extended stays in the country. Traditionally, Japanese prints were made by three specialized craftsmen: an artist drew the picture, a carver transferred the image to the woodblocks, and a printer inked the blocks and produced the finished work. In recognition of her mastery of these processes, Lum was the only foreign artist included in Tokyo’s Annual Art Exhibition of 1912.

Caption

Bertha Lum (American, 1879–1954). On the River, 1913. Color woodcut on off-white, medium thick, moderately textured laid Japan paper, Image: 10 1/4 x 17 11/16 in. (26 x 44.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 63.108.8. © Estate of Bertha Lum. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Collection

American Art

Title

On the River

Date

1913

Medium

Color woodcut on off-white, medium thick, moderately textured laid Japan paper

Classification

Print

Dimensions

Image: 10 1/4 x 17 11/16 in. (26 x 44.9 cm)

Signatures

Signed in graphite, inside of plate, lower center "Copyright 1913 by Bertha Lum no/54"

Inscriptions

Two Japanese characters in vertical cartouche stamped on tree at lower left.

Credit Line

Gift of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts

Accession Number

63.108.8

Rights

© Estate of Bertha Lum

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Artists and makers

Bertha Lum

9 works in the collection