The Lucky Branch 1915

Helen Hyde created this color etching called 'The Lucky Branch', sometime around 1915. There is a child looking up at a branch and what hangs from it—a little figure with two fish attached to it. It is very whimsical and sweet. What I like about prints is how handmade they are, even though they are made with a machine, the printing press. You can tell that the artist went over the plate with a very fine tool to describe the folds of the girl's dress and the way she has a round head and is looking up into the air at this lucky branch. There's such freedom in the etched line. It can be very descriptive and very abstract at the same time. When you put those two things together you get a really resonant image.