Witch Hazel

Witch Hazel depicts Hamamelis, a winter-flowering shrub whose strap-shaped, crinkled petals open on bare wood between December and February. The combination of etching and aquatint is well chosen for the subject: the etched line carries the angular, leafless branch armature, while aquatint — a granular resin ground bitten in stages — supplies the soft tonal field against which the pale yellow or copper flowers register. Doyle's witch hazel sits within a broader winter-flowering sequence in her practice, including Daphne and Sarcococca, that addresses the off-season garden — plants valued for fragrance and form rather than for the high colour of summer. The print's compositional restraint, isolating a single flowering branch against an undeveloped ground, is consistent with the tradition of botanical illustration she works within while retaining the atmospheric quality intaglio adds.