$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.
This drawing from 1900 depicts a sailboat and represents one of Bertha Lum's earliest known works, predating her first trip to Japan by three years. At this point, Lum was still working within Western artistic conventions, having studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. The sailboat subject, rendered in drawing rather than woodblock, shows the foundational draftsmanship that would later serve her when she took up the demanding craft of block carving. The simplicity of a single vessel on water — a universal subject across artistic traditions — connects this early work to her later maritime prints of Japanese junks and fishing boats, suggesting a lifelong attraction to the visual poetry of sail and sea that would eventually find its fullest expression in the woodblock medium.
Woodblock print
Hansen, yoru
1926
Color woodblock print
1915
Color woodblock print
Hansen, asa
1926
Color woodblock print
Curated cross-cuts that include this print.
Sailboat was created by Bertha Lum in 1900.
Sailboat depicts boats & ships and seascapes.
