Woodblock Prints: Complex In Their Simplicity

Published by the Two Red Roses Foundation, December 3, 2014

The Two Red Roses Foundation owns a large collection of American Arts and Crafts era woodblock prints produced by the most important artists of the day. A selection of these prints was exhibited at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art from November 2008 to January 2009 and was accompanied by an exhibition catalog, "Color Woodblock Prints" by Susan Montgomery. 

Since then, the Foundation has acquired over forty additional woodblock prints and has commissioned noted author Susan Futterman to write the seventh in a series of TRRF collection catalogs. The introductory essay to the catalog will be followed by extended reviews of twenty selected prints. All 120 woodblocks in the collection will be illustrated and cataloged. The book is now available: Color Woodblock Prints from the Collection of the Two Red Roses Foundation.

The Two Red Roses Foundation was delighted when a rare woodblock print by Bertha Lum became available. Printed in 1907 and named Fox Women (Gravalos/Pulin 12), this print was exhibited the same year at the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago's "Sixth Annual Exhibition Of Original Designs for Decorations and Examples of Art Crafts". In May of 1912 the same print was entered in the 10th exhibition of the Taiheiyo-gakai (Pacific Group of Western-style Painting). On the back of the mount, in addition to the artists' label, there was a small typewritten poem named "Fox Women". The poem reads as follows: "Goblin foxes have the power to deceive the people by enchantment the favorite shape assumed for the purpose of deluding mankind is that of a beautiful woman. Innumerable are the stories told about the wiles of the fox women. They haunt solitary places and at night swing ghostly lanterns". Our research found that the text had been written by Lafcadio Hearn, who also produced "Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan: Kitsune" where many references to Kitsune are found.

Kitsune is the Japanese word for "fox". Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume human form. While some folktales speak of kitsune employing this ability to trick others - as foxes in folklore often do - other stories portray them as faithful guardians, friends, lovers, and wives.

In 1929 Frances, May, and Edna Gearhart collaborated on and produced 25 multicolored woodblock prints assembled for the purpose of publishing an illustrated children's book. The planned work, entitled "Let's Play" complete with its original linoleum cuts also came with playful poetic verses but, unfortunately, was never published. Eighty years later the Book Club of California has now brought the first edition of this charming work into a now out-of-print publication (*as of June 24, 2026).

Of particular interest in the group owed by the Two Red Roses Foundation is "Sunflower Sue" pictured above. It is unique for its very rare portrayal of a young African American schoolgirl and utilizes colorful sunflowers as its backdrop. The accompanying poem speaks to the timeless universal dreams and life of all children:

Happy go lucky, Sunflower Sue,
Her mammy calls her Susy Lou.
She helps her daddy plant and hoe
The sweet potatoes in a row,
The melons, corn, and sugar cane,
The yellow sunflowers in the lane.
When summer days are warm and long,
She comes a'marching with a song;

I likes to eat and laugh and dance;
I like to shuffle, whirl and prance.
But when I'se big I'se gwine to be
The finest lady you could see.
Dressed like the sunflowers in our lane,
More stylish than the corn and cane.
In bright green skirts and yellow hat,
I'll dance all day and laugh and chat
With black birds, bumble bees and crows
Who come a'courting as my beaus.
I'll never dig, I'll never hoe,
Nor plant potatoes in a row.
And I'll be called Celestial Sue
Belinga Rose Eliza Lou