Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper, “Gas”, Oil on Canvas, 1940, Museum of Modern Art, New York

This work resulted from a composite representation of several gasoline stations seen by Edward Hopper. The light in this painting—both natural and artificial—gives the scene of a gas station and its lone attendant at dusk an underlying sense of drama. But rather than simply depicting a straightforward narrative, Hopper’s aim was “the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature”—in this case, the loneliness of an American country road.

Fellow artist Charles Burchfield believed these paintings would remain memorable beyond their time, because in his “honest presentation of the American scene … Hopper does not insist upon what the beholder shall feel.”

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper, “Tables for Ladies”, Oil on Canvas, 1930, Metropolitan Museum of Art

“Tables for Ladies” places the viewer directly outside the front window of an ordinary restaurant in New York City. The viewer’s gaze is directed past the menu cards and the vividly painted foods in the window display and the waitress who leans forward to adjust them, into an interior of polished wood, tiled floors, and wall mirrors where a man and woman eat and a cashier attends to business at her register. Hopper painted this large canvas in the studio, working from sketches that he had made of local restaurants.

Yet despite the bright lighting and the warm, even garish, colors, this is not a particularly festive scene. The two diners chat between themselves, but the cashier and the waitress are lost in their separate thoughts and duties. As in many of his works, Hopper indirectly comments on the loneliness and weariness that so many city dwellers experience.

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper, “French Six-Day Bicycle Rider”, 1937, Oil on Canvas, 43.8 x 48.9 cm, Private Collection

In the 1800s, the invention of the safety bicycle initiated a cycling craze in America. Designed by English engineer Harry John Lawson in 1878, the first model of the ‘safety bike” was unlike previous bicycles in that the rider’s feet could reach the ground, which made it easier to stop. The pedals powered the rear wheel and kept the rider’s feet safely away from the front wheel. The chain drive allowed for much smaller wheels and replaced the need for the directly pedaled front wheel of previous bicycles. Although the smaller wheels gave a harsher ride, the introduction of pneumatic tires, which replaced the previous solid ones, overcame that disadvantage.

Edward Hopper as a teenager in his hometown of Nyack, New York, was an avid cyclist. The freedom of both cycling and drawing freed him from the confines and boredom of small town life in the 1890s. During his early years, Hopper drew many bicycling scenes, two of which are “Study of a Man in the Bike Shop”, the interior of a bike shop whose owner is working on bike tires, and “Meditation: 10 Miles from Home”, a self portrait standing in knickers and argyle socks, staring at his bike’s flat front tire.

The inspiration for Hopper’s 1937 “French Six-Day Bicycle Rider” came from his watching bicycle races in New York’s Madison Square Garden. He remembered the rider, young and very French in appearance, who was resting while the his team mate was on the track. Early sketches for the painting show slightly different perspectives. In his notes for the final painting, Hopper chose to use the perspective from his 1921 etching, “The Night Shadows”, which depicts a street scene seen from an upper window.

In his painting, Edward Hopper simplified the scene and focused on the emotional isolation of the rider. Strong diagonal lines cut across the scene. The young male assistant, whose slender form contrasts with the muscular rider, is shown opening the sleeping curtain. Bicycles on the left and right balance the scene which includes details from a biker’s kit: a helmet hung on a peg and a water bottle near the French flag on the hut’s roof. Next to the bicycles in the foreground sits a bucket containing a bottle.

Hopper finished the oil on canvas painting on March 5, 1937.

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper, “Pennsylvania Coal Town”, Oil on Canvas, 1947, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio

In the early 1940s, American Realist painter Edward Hopper had a very productive period, in which he painted some of his most famous works, such as “Morning in a City” and “Nighthawks”. During the late 1940s, however, he suffered a period of relative inactivity. By 1947 when he painted “Pennsylvania Coal Town”, his output had slowed. However, in the 1950s and early 1960s, despite faltering health and several surgeries, Hopper created several more major works, including the 1951 “First Row Orchestra” and the 1952 “Hotel by a Railroad”.

“Pennsylvania Coal Town” portrays a man, tending the yard outside of his house, holding a rake or similar tool. Apart from a plant with green foliage in a large vase, the yard appears bare. The man is staring at something we cannot see, a frequent occurrence in Hopper’s work. Many of his paintings depict people gazing at something unknown in the distance. The interior of the house’s front room can be seen through a large window, showing a lamp and a picture on the wall.

As with many of Hopper’s paintings, light plays an important role. The sunlight is shining directly on the man, and one side of the house, in contrast to the rest of the painting, which is shown in shadow. This gives the impression that it is, either, early morning or late evening. Typical of much of his work, this painting does not tell a story but is a location’s moment in time. It is left to the viewer to imagine what is happening here.

Another recurring motif, in Edward Hopper’s work, is loneliness. Many of his works feature a lone person staring out of a window, or sitting at a coffee table. In this painting the subject appears to be alone; there is no sign of life around him. Even the house does not appear welcoming. “Pennsylvania Coal Town” is a fine example of Hopper’s genius, depicting considerable information in a seemingly simple painting.