Skip Navigation

Yuki-Anna, The Frost Fairy

Bertha Lum

American Art

Bertha Lum often found subject matter in the highly popular stories of Lafcadio Hearn (1850–1904), an American writer living in Japan who adapted local legends and fairy tales for Western audiences. This woodcut illustrates the tragic story of Yuki-Anna, a wintry spirit who takes on human form in order to marry a young man she loves. When he betrays her secret identity, she transforms into snow and melts away forever.
MEDIUM Color woodcut on cream, thin, laid Japan paper
DATES 1916
DIMENSIONS Sheet: 17 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (44.8 x 26.7 cm) Image: 17 1/8 x 10 1/8 in. (43.5 x 25.7 cm)  (show scale)
MARKINGS From Catalog Sheet: Signed, "Copyright 1916 by" in margin, "Bertha Lum" in lower center of composition, "No / 21"
SIGNATURE Signed in graphite, bottom edge of sheet, inside of plate "[illegible] lit 1916 by Bertha Lum"
INSCRIPTIONS Inscribed in graphite, inside of plate, lower right of sheet "no/21."
COLLECTIONS American Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 63.108.1
CREDIT LINE Gift of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Bertha Lum (American, 1879–1954). Yuki-Anna, The Frost Fairy, 1916. Color woodcut on cream, thin, laid Japan paper, Sheet: 17 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (44.8 x 26.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, 63.108.1. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 63.108.1_PS1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 63.108.1_PS1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT © Estate of Bertha Lum
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.