by Bertha Lum
$1,000–$8,000. Common subjects: $1,000–$2,500. Key value factors: Bertha Lum's status as a pioneering Western woodblock printmaker gives her work historical value. Her Art Nouveau-influenced prints are particularly sought after.
Fox Women, created in 1907, draws on the Japanese folklore of kitsune — shapeshifting foxes who assume female form to interact with humans. These stories permeate Japanese literature and theater, and fox spirits occupy an ambiguous moral space as both tricksters and devoted lovers. Lum was fascinated by the supernatural traditions she encountered in Japan, and this print represents one of her earliest engagements with mythological subject matter. The color woodcut technique suits the subject well: flat areas of color and sharp outlines give the fox women a graphic presence that hovers between natural and uncanny. Lum would return to folklore and spirit subjects throughout her career, finding in them a visual richness that matched her technical ambitions as a printmaker.
Hebizukai
1932
Color woodblock print; oban
1935
Color woodblock print; oban
1964
Acrylic paint and oil pastel with oiled charcoal and ink over an ink and graphite underdrawing on paper
1964
Color lithograph with relief block and hand coloring; edition 35/36
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Fox Women was created by Bertha Lum in 1907.
Fox Women depicts animals.
Fox Women measures 32.4 × 21.3 cm.
