Bertha Jaques

American, (1863–1941)
Born Bertha Clausen in Covington, Ohio in 1863, Bertha Jaques lived in Cedar Rapids from 1885 to 1889. She and her husband then moved to Chicago. She did not come to printmaking until she was in her 30's when, in 1893, she attended the Chicago Columbian Exposition where she saw prints by such notable artists as James Abbott McNeillWhistler, James Tissot, and Anders Zorn. She became immediately interested in the etching technique and her surgeon husband, William K. Jaques (an 1883 graduate of Cornell Collge whom she met in Mount Vernon, Iowa) fashioned tools out of surgical instruments so that she could etch copper plates. With the purchase of a printing press, Jaques made her first etching in Chicago in 1894. Her interest in the print never waned and her home and studio were the setting of many artistic events. Jaques was one of the founders of the Chicago Society of Etchers in 1910, serving as its secretary/treasurer for 27 years. During her 46-year career, she created 461 prints and more than 1,000 cyanotype photographs. Although largely self-taught, Jaques was an influential teacher and mentor, authoring a book, Concerning Etchings, in 1912. She was also an accomplished poet and self-published a number of volumes of her poetry.

As one of the first American etchers to popularize the medium in the United States, Jaques approached the art of etching with a keenly scientific mind by recording the details of every step in her printmaking process.