Bertha B. Lum was born Bertha Boynton Bull in Tipton, Iowa in May of 1879 to parents who were amateur artists.
Her father was Joseph W. Bull (1841-1923) and her mother Harriet Ann Boynton (1842-1925). Bertha had two brothers ((Karl and Emerson) and one sister (Clara). She studied art at the Institute of Art at Chicago from 1895-1900. In 1903 she married Burt F. Lum, a corporate lawyer from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They traveled to Japan on their honeynoon. Bertha expected to discover many artists working there as printmakers, but during this time, Japanese printmaking was in serious decline. Due to the dirge of printmakers, she had to search for a long time. Finally, on the day of their departure, she located a small shop selling the tools for making prints. She paid quite a high price for low-quality tools. But she managed to get some basic information about how to use them and left for home. Upon returning to the U.S. she produced some lovely prints like "China Boy" or "Lanterns". Lum developed an exotic style that combined the influences of art nouveau with the more traditional style of Japanese block printing.
Lum studied at the Chicago Art Institute with Frank Holme who experimented with color woodblock techniques from 1895 to 1896 and again from 1901 to 1902, taking courses in figure drawing and design; she also studied illustration and stained-glass technique.
She was exposed to the great collections of Morse, Buckingham and the Japanese influences of Frank Lloyd Wright. From 1903 to 1907 she made several noteworthy woodblock prints that clearly show the influence of both French impressionism and ukiyo-e.
In 1907 she again traveled to Japan where she studied with master carver Iagmi Bonkotsu and printer Nishimura Kamakichi. She settled in Tokyo in 1911, studying woodcut making in the Japanese manner. In 1915 and 1919 she made extended trips to Japan, and in 1922 she made her first trip to Peking and, with the exception of the war years, spent most of her remaining years there. She lived in Minneapolis until 1916, and afterwards in San Francisco. Her first trip to Peking was made in 1922, with several more until taking up permanent residence there. She returned to live in the United States in 1940. Lum wrote and illustrated two books of her own and created the illustrations for books and articles by both of her daughters. She returned to Peking then went back to Peking from 1948 to 1953, but, because of failing health, moved to her daughter's home in Genoa, Italy, where she died at the age of 75.
LUM'S PRINT MAKING TECHNIQUE
While living in Peking in 1922, Bertha Lum developed a new type of print, often referred to as a raised line print. First, she molded wet paper over a carved wooden block. After the paper dried, she handpainted the embossed paper using the raised lines to delineate the areas of colors. According to her daughter, Peter Lum Crowe, this was an old Chinese technique that Lum adapted for her own use. Lum's raised line prints often had significant variations in colors. She frequently employed native craftsmen to assist her.
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