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“We are all Edward Hopper paintings now” – proclaimed Guardian critic Jonathan Jones, in a feature from 2020, citing a WhatsApp collection of the American artist’s paintings. Persons in Hopper‘s works are alienated individuals, staring bleakly into empty cityscapes, reflective perhaps of their inner states. Even when shown in groups, like in the famous Nighthawks from 1942, they seem distant from each other, preoccupied with their thoughts, and unable to engage socially.
Today, the world uncannily resembles Hopper’s vision of modern life. While his preoccupations were the consequences of increased industrialization and alienation of workers from the means of production in capitalism, described by Marx, the pandemic social distancing rules apply the similar pressure on individuals, turning the world into a Hopper’s scene, like the one from Nighthawks. The causes may differ, but the outcome seems identical.
Throughout his career, Hopper tried to show modern time and its replicated image over the surfaces of cities, interior spaces, and human interactions. Although his world seems peaceful and frozen in a moment, there is always an element that throws this peace off balance and reveals the tensions and struggles behind the surface.
To get familiar with Hopper’s works from the first half of the 20th century, which seem more relevant today than ever, we collected a list of his memorable paintings and examined the clues he left for their understanding.
Learn more about Edward Hopper’s Automat – A Haunting Depiction of Urban Alienation
Featured image: American artist Edward Hopper – Girl at Sewing Machine, 1921, oil on canvas, holdings of Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, public domain.
On display in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain, The Girl at a Sewing Machine encapsulates the topic Hopper will examine in most of his works – the alienation of modern life. Created in 1921, the painting shows a young woman working on a machine in front of a window on a sunny day. The loneliness and isolation are emphasized through the contrast of inside and outside, with a day basking in blue light on the one side and the manual labor on the other. The city is invisible, limiting the woman’s world to just her place of work.
Featured image: American artist Edward Hopper – Haskell’s House, 1925, public domain
Held in a National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Haskell’s House is one of Edward Hopper’s celebrated representations of houses and buildings, sharing the loneliness of their human inhabitants. Bright colors and sharp use of light do not make the pervasive sense of detachment and mystery less prominent; in contrast, they put it in clear focus. As the painting shows, a gloomy disposition cannot be made away with a few sunny strokes.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – House by the Railroad, 1925, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art. Graham Triggs via Flickr.
If we mix up the dates, it may seem that Hopper visited Alfred Hitchcock’s set of Psycho before painting House by the Railroad. Hopper was among the artists who could capture the eeriness of city life, by focusing on a single detail. The painting, held today at MoMA, shows a house perched on a hilltop, the spitting image of Norman Bates’ house from the film. However, the painting was made a few decades before the film, although its present eeriness comes from the links that immediately jump to mind when we see it.
Alfred Hitchcock was a fan of Hopper and didn’t hide that his paintings inspired him. Hopper painted an actual house that can still be visited in Haverstraw, New York.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928, oil on canvas, via Wikiart
Among the artists that represented New York City, Hopper managed to show its underside, without depicting any particularly disconcerting detail. The painting represents a vista of New York with the Manhattan Bridge in front of it. A single figure is shown passing, disturbing the otherwise peaceful and understated image of a large metropolis. Held at the Addison Gallery of American Art collection in Andover, Massachusetts, the piece is considered a key representation of New York that influenced the way people see the city.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – Early Sunday Morning, 1930 via Wikimedia commons
Although Edward Hopper is considered the leading American realist, Early Sunday Morning confirms that he was more preoccupied with painterly elements such as simplified forms and composition than representing reality as it is. Although the painting supposedly shows Seventh Avenue, the shadows in the early morning there could never appear as they are presented. The buildings are also loosely sketched, with vertical and horizontal lines creating a theatrical atmosphere. The painting is in the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – East Wind Over Weehawken, 1934, Wikimedia commons
Held in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before it was sold for $40 million to an anonymous buyer in 2013, East Wind Over Weehawken shows a row of houses, mismatched in size and styles, with a sign For Sale prominently showing across from them. The painting was made in 1934, during a period of the Great Depression.
While the representation follows Hopper’s previous similar works, with a lack of human figures and solid forms, the glum social circumstances surrounding its making seem to seep on the canvas, leaving a somber atmosphere and a sense of abandonment.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – Cape Cod Evening, 1939, public domain
Another of Hopper’s paintings held in the National Gallery of Art, Cape Cod Evening was made in Truro, a fishing village on Cape Cod, MA. Similarly to his other works, the painting departs from realism, which the artist confirmed himself. “It is no exact transcription of a place, but pieced together from sketches and mental impressions of things in the vicinity,” he stated.
The contrast of light and dark are pronounced, with grass and the house being in stark opposition to the encroaching darkness. The alertness of a dog and the self-absorbed figures contribute to the menacing atmosphere of the painting. Created in 1939, the work may be understood as a commentary on the impending war in Europe.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – New York Movie, 1939, public domain
New York Movie, a part of the MoMa collection, represents two realities of a movie-going experience – a group of visitors enjoys a film, while an usherette is alone and preoccupied with her thoughts. The painting was praised for its masterful representation of light coming from several sources and an honest representation of the female figure.
Although it may seem that Hopper depicted an existing movie theater, the images come from several separate sources. The woman figure is the artist’s wife, Josephine Hopper, who posed for him under a lamp in their house, while the theater is a combination of references from several theaters around the city.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – Ground Swell, 1939
The painting belongs to a series showing nautical subjects Hopper created after moving to a newly-built home in South Truro with his wife. While the sky is blue and the sea seems peaceful enough, the buoy in the center of the composition, painted in dark colors and cirrus clouds in the sky, seem to be harbingers of approaching disturbances.
The cirrus clouds are often indicators of an upcoming storm, while the buoy perched on a wave and leaning towards the boat should emit a warning sound to announce approaching danger. Painted in 1939, Ground Swell could also reference the beginning of World War II as Cape Cod Evening. The painting can be seen in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Featured image: Edward Hopper – Office at Night, 1940, via Wikipedia
Office at Night provoked the most debates about the meaning of all Hopper’s works. While the setting is relatively simple, with a few pieces of office furniture and two figures, a young woman and an older man, we can only infer their roles and interactions.
The woman is looking at a sheet of paper on the floor, next to a table, while the man reads a document. Again, the figures are shown isolated from each other and preoccupied with their inner worlds, but some critics noted a sexual tension between them. The painting is on display at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.
Paris-New York: A 7hour 52minute flight, 6 hours of jetlag or a 5 minute read in order to be up to date on what’s happening in the art world in the Big Apple. Only a few days left: Louise Nedelson’s work is disconcerting; not only are her mural sculptures topical but so also is the story they tell. The Russian…
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