Fox Women

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.