The Blue Umbrella 1914

Helen Hyde made this colour woodblock print, ‘The Blue Umbrella’, sometime around 1914. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on here, but the slightly blurred lines and the pale colours give it a dreamy, almost surreal quality, like a memory half-forgotten. The texture of the paper and the way the colours bleed slightly into each other make me think about the physical process of making art. You can almost feel the artist pressing the woodblock onto the paper, carefully building up the image layer by layer. Look at the way the rain is depicted, just simple diagonal lines, but they're so effective in conveying the feeling of a wet, blustery day. And the little girl, she's so bundled up against the weather, her face peering out from under her hat. Hyde's work reminds me of the Japanese Ukiyo-e prints, but with a distinctly Western sensibility. It’s like she's taking a traditional form and making it her own. It’s this kind of dialogue across cultures and time that makes art so exciting; it’s an ever-evolving conversation, full of surprises and unexpected connections.