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Road to Japan: The life and art of Bertha Lum
Dec 18, 2024
While scrolling through the Carter’s collection, I came across Bertha Lum’s Road to the Forest and was mesmerized by the quiet nature of the composition, the ambiguity of place yet a sense of safety and familiarity emanating from the warmth of the buildings. As this is the only artwork by Lum in our collection, it drew me to research her other works and her life.
Faded from the public eye over the decades, Lum’s work and her importance in promoting Japanese and Chinese woodblock printing outside of Asia is worthy of celebration and admiration. Her playful and enchanting prints seamlessly combine traditional Japanese techniques and Art Nouveau aesthetics, showcasing her passion and command of the art form. For me, Lum’s work provides an escape from the modern world, depicting lands as though steeped in mysticism filled with beauty and adventure, whether it be a group of children playing with kites on a windy day (Kites, 1913) , a benevolent ancient spirit (The Fox Woman, 1923) , or a calming walk on a forest road, shown in the Carter’s print Road to the Forest.
The beaming yellow light pours out from the cottages, glowing against the monochromatic blue hues of the night. In the distance stands a looming mountain hidden behind the towering forest trees. Lum imbues a sense of mystery and peace in the landscape scene.
This print exemplifies a fusion of Eastern and Western art forms, called Japonisme. The movement initiated in the 19th century as Japanese prints, screens, scrolls, and other visual culture began to flood European society when Japan’s Sakoku, or isolationist policy, ended in 1854 after 220 years. Collectors were able to get their hands on these art pieces to sell, and artists like James McNeill Whistler, Vincent van Gogh, Mary Cassatt, and Arthur Wesley Dow, who inspired Lum, were flooded with new inspiration for their own work. An important thing to note is that Japonisme connects to a larger history of exoticism and orientalism, looking at the East through lenses of stereotyping and othering rather than a true understanding of culture. But instead of imitating prints, using Japanese material culture as props, or utilizing generalized methods like flattened planes and decorative application of color, as many artists did, Lum decided to go to Japan first in 1903 and again in 1907 to learn from woodblock masters in Tokyo and Yokohama. Just one year later, Lum was named a master craftsman by the Society of Arts and Crafts in Boston. In 1912, she was the only foreigner to exhibit her works at the Tenth Annual Art Exhibition in Ueno Park in Tokyo, garnering attention for her unique blend of Eastern and Western styles among the more traditional Japanese pieces.
Undated photo of artist Bertha Lum. Hennepin County Library, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
In the following decades, Lum traveled between the United States and Japan perfecting her technique and recruiting cutters and printers to work with her in Tokyo. Road to the Forest was completed on her trip to Japan between 1915 and 1916. Interestingly, Lum gave several alternate titles to this work, including Carmel Cottages, setting the print’s location in California, and Road to the Forest at Nikko, placing it in the mountains north of Tokyo. By manipulating the title, perhaps to appeal to Eastern versus Western collectors, Lum took advantage of a heavily commercialized sector of art and changed the marketing of the print depending on American sentiments toward Japan at a particular moment. Taking her devotion to woodblock printing even further, she moved to China in 1922 to learn Chinese woodblock methods, her last ever print appearing in The Peking Chronicle in 1937.
Being a delicate work on paper sensitive to light, Road to the Forest isn’t in the galleries very often, but what a treat to learn that this gem of the early 1900s is in the Carter collection.
