Bertha Lum

American

1869

1953

Bertha Lum’s adult life was marked by almost constant travel across the Pacific—a stark contrast with her childhood in Iowa, education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and then marriage in 1903 to Burt Lum, an attorney in Minneapolis. Exposed to Japanese art, she chose to honeymoon in Japan, the land described so beautifully in the books of Lafcadio Hearn. Back in Minneapolis Lum began to carve and print her own experimental works, with tools purchased on her trip. Determined to learn more, Lum returned to Japan three times between 1907 and 1916 to study block cutting, eventually hiring a carver and printer and making many more atmospheric prints. After moving to San Francisco with Burt and their two daughters, Lum was again in residence in Tokyo from 1919 to 1920. Lum made her first visit to China in 1922, staying for approximately two years and returning again in 1927. It was during this period that she divorced her husband. Lum continued to live in China on and off through the 1930s, with periodic stays in Hollywood and Pasadena, producing some posters and other designs for film studios. In China she created raised line prints as well as paintings, illustrating books and overseeing the production of her woodblock prints. With the outbreak of World War II, Lum repatriated to America, but was back in China by 1948. In 1953, Lum left China for Genoa, Italy, where she died a year later.