Keith, Elizabeth

Elizabeth Keith: Along with Helen Hyde, Bertha Lum and Paul Jacoulet, Elizabeth Keith ranks as a foremost Western artist associated with the famous Japanese Shin Hanga movement of the early twentieth century color woodcut. Elizabeth Keith was born in Scotland but spent most of her youth in London. She received no formal training in the arts and did not begin devoting her energies to painting and printmaking until an eventful 1915 trip to Japan to visit her sister and brother-in-law. She immediately fell in love with the country and sold her return ticket home. For the following nine years, Elizabeth Keith lived in Japan and traveled extensively in Korea, China and the Philippines.