Bottles of the Sea c. 1945

Veronica Helfensteller made this intriguing print, “Bottles of the Sea,” and honestly, it feels like diving into a dream. The cross hatching creates a soft, shimmering texture, like light filtering through water, and the bottles and objects all emerge from this haze, as if remembered or half-seen. Look at how the light catches the edges of the leaves, or the subtle details of the bottles and their mysterious contents. It is almost like each shape is being constructed, uncertainly, before our eyes. I like how the artist uses the etching lines to build up both the form and the tone. It's physical, like drawing with light and shadow. There’s a particular spot, near the bottom right, where the lines seem to coalesce into a miniature figure, a sort of sea nymph perhaps, a tiny, fleeting presence conjured by the artist. This reminds me a bit of Odilon Redon's dreamscapes, where reality and imagination blur. Ultimately, Helfensteller's print invites us to drift in its evocative ambiguity.