Skip to main contentProvenanceThe artist
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1996
Exhibition HistoryPublished References
Bertha Lum
(American, 1869–1954)
Mother West Wind
1920
Color woodcut on tan Japanese paper
Image: 15 7/16 x 10 5/8 in. (39.2 x 27.0 cm)
Sheet: 15 7/8 x 11 in. (40.3 x 27.9 cm)
Mat: 24 x 18 in. (61.0 x 45.7 cm)
Sheet: 15 7/8 x 11 in. (40.3 x 27.9 cm)
Mat: 24 x 18 in. (61.0 x 45.7 cm)
Credit LineTerra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection
Object number1996.38
SignedIn graphite, lower center (beneath image): Bertha Lum
InterpretationBertha Lum's color woodcut print Mother West Wind conjures an ethereal being that is empowered when the moon is full. The female spirit is accompanied by numerous children who peer out from among her flowing draperies and hair. A brooding owl in flight emphasizes the mysterious nature of nighttime. The fluid, swirling lines of these beings recall the European graphic style known as art nouveau, characterized by exaggerated flowing curves, which reached the height of its popularity in the 1890s. A fusion of Western and Japanese stylized elements, Mother West Wind displays Lum's technical mastery in printing subtle gradations of pale tones.
Lum carved the wood blocks for this print in 1918, shortly after returning from Japan to settle with her family in California, but she did not print and copyright it until two years later. Mother West Wind is one of Lum's many prints inspired by Japanese myth and folklore, or by scenes she had experienced during her four previous trips to Japan (1903, 1907, 1911–12, and 1915–16). While in Tokyo in 1907, Lum was captivated by the writings of Lafcadio Hearn, a European-born naturalized citizen of Japan who did much to popularize Japanese culture abroad. Hearns's translations of Japanese legends and his popular writings about Japanese supernatural beings evidently influenced Lum's choice of subject in this print and her own book Gods, Goblins and Ghosts, published in 1922.
Prints such as Mother West Wind brought Lum considerable professional success during the 1920s, despite the destruction of many of her early blocks and print impressions, then being stored with her Japanese printers, in the devastating 1923 earthquake in Tokyo. Thereafter, Lum created most of the rest of her prints in China and in the United States.
Lum carved the wood blocks for this print in 1918, shortly after returning from Japan to settle with her family in California, but she did not print and copyright it until two years later. Mother West Wind is one of Lum's many prints inspired by Japanese myth and folklore, or by scenes she had experienced during her four previous trips to Japan (1903, 1907, 1911–12, and 1915–16). While in Tokyo in 1907, Lum was captivated by the writings of Lafcadio Hearn, a European-born naturalized citizen of Japan who did much to popularize Japanese culture abroad. Hearns's translations of Japanese legends and his popular writings about Japanese supernatural beings evidently influenced Lum's choice of subject in this print and her own book Gods, Goblins and Ghosts, published in 1922.
Prints such as Mother West Wind brought Lum considerable professional success during the 1920s, despite the destruction of many of her early blocks and print impressions, then being stored with her Japanese printers, in the devastating 1923 earthquake in Tokyo. Thereafter, Lum created most of the rest of her prints in China and in the United States.
Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, New York
Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, Illinois, 1996
Exhibition History
(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.
Le Japonisme en Amérique: oeuvres sur papier, 1880–1930 (Japonisme in America: Works on Paper, 1880–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002.
Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art, May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]
Le Japonisme en Amérique: oeuvres sur papier, 1880–1930 (Japonisme in America: Works on Paper, 1880–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, September 15–November 30, 2002.
Manifest Destiny, Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. Terra Foundation for American Art, Chicago, Illinois and Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizers). Venue: Loyola University Museum of Art, May 17–August 10, 2008. [exh. cat.]
Gravelos, Mary Evans O'Keefe and Carol Pulin. Bertha Lum. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1991. No. 51, pp. 75, 97.
Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text pp. 31, 37 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 18, p. 54 (color).
Brownlee, Peter John. Manifest Destiny / Manifest Responsibility: Environmentalism and the Art of the American Landscape. (exh. cat., Loyola University Museum of Art, Chicago, Illinois). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art and Loyola University Museum of Art, 2008. Text pp. 31, 37 (checklist); Ill. Pl. 18, p. 54 (color).