[The procession] / Bertha Lum.

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This color woodcut shows a procession in which women ride in enclosed sedan chairs through the street, a subject that sets it apart from the more common street scenes in Lum's work. Bertha Lum, an American artist who lived for many years in China, adapted the methods of Japanese color woodblock printing, cutting a separate block for each color. Sedan chairs were a familiar part of Japanese city life in this period, though rickshaws and trains were replacing them, which gives the scene a quiet sense of a custom passing. The pencil signature shows that the artist approved this impression.

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