26 Facts About Bertha Jaques

Bertha Evelyn Jaques was an American etcher and cyanotype photographer.

Bertha Jaques is best known for her hand-colored botanical prints and scenes from her foreign and domestic travels.

Bertha Jaques enjoyed a comfortable and independent life, traveling to the United Kingdom by herself in September 1889.

Bertha Jaques met her husband, William K Jaques, in 1883 and they moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1885.

In 1893, Bertha Jaques attended the World's Columbian Exposition and was inspired by the prints of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, James Tissot, and Anders Zorn.

Therefore, Bertha Jaques largely taught herself how to etch plates and make prints.

Bertha Jaques kept detailed records of her progress and the results of how variables affected the finished image.

Bertha Jaques began to etch on kettle copper with her husband's help making suitable tools.

William Bertha Jaques was very supportive of his wife's artistic career.

Bertha Jaques purchased her equipment and materials, and hired domestic help to allow Jaques to focus entirely on her art.

Bertha Jaques made her first prints in 1894 and would continue to produce 461 unique plates during her career which ended in 1939.

Later, Bertha Jaques would become a founding member of the Chicago Society of Etchers in 1910, an organization that was primarily responsible for showing members' etchings at the Art Institute of Chicago; she served as Secretary from its foundation through the 1930s.

Thanks to her growing reputation in Chicago Bertha Jaques was invited to speak on the nature of etchings throughout the country.

Bertha Jaques's tours brought her some degree of notoriety, being named a visiting celebrity to Nebraska.

Bertha Jaques's lecture ends with a brief plea for the listeners to visit galleries and view prints up close to appreciate the use of lines, artistic composition, and to become familiar with what a "good" print looked like.

Bertha Jaques became a central figure in the wider community of etchers, and many artists would travel to her home, including many visits from Helen Hyde.

Bertha Jaques became a mentor, collector, and promoter of several younger artists, including James Swann whom she entrusted giving the position of secretary in 1937.

Bertha Jaques combined these passions in Christmas cards and self-published books of poems.

Bertha Jaques's personality comes through most clearly in her poems, where her strong-will, wit, and practicality are evident.

Bertha Jaques kept precise records of her experiments with printing throughout her career.

Bertha Jaques experimented with many aspects of etching, particularly surface tone and acid biting.

Each state represents the artist's advancement in composition or technical prowess at a time when Bertha Jaques was among the first to rediscover such techniques.

Bertha Jaques's landscapes have a focus on urban, industrial settings.

Bertha Jaques showed the working areas of a city in a picturesque way that is just as captivating as her images of tourist-friendly scenes.

Bertha Jaques's works are in private collections and sold occasionally through auction.

The world's largest public collection of the work of Bertha Jaques is owned by the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art.