I proudly have a decent copy of this on one of my walls. Sometimes I look at the woman’s face and imagine she is contemplating the pathetic uselessness of existence. At other times, I wonder if she is just trying to decide where the closest decent Chinese restaurant is. But that’s Hopper for you.
I love that painting, like almost all of Hopper’s work, there is a loneliness even when among other people (maybe especially). Hopper’s wife served as his model for almost all the women in his paintings and they did not have a happy marriage.
I too love most of his stuff. But I will say that back in 2008 or so, there was a Hopper showing at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it seemed like practically all of his works were on view. It took me hours to get through them all, and for years after that I was all “Hoppered out”. Like the Chris Cooper character in “Adaptation” says, I was “…done with fish.” Thankfully, I have revisited him many times in recent years, and am happy to say that I once again find him to be amazing.
Not being from the US, I only discovered Hopper quite recently - I mean, you’re just not exposed to him in the UK. There’s something about his art - something I can’t explain - that I find irresistible. (“Intimate distance” perhaps?)
Yeah, there’s been a documentary on his life on one of the Sky channels recently. More or less ruined his wife’s career (she was, initially, more highly regarded as a painter than he was). Unpleasant character. As is often the case, you just have to separate the artist from the art.
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My favorite painting is Hopper’s Cape Cod Evening. It’s hanging in the National Gallery in DC and I had jury duty in a courthouse almost across the street. Every day for lunch, I’d go sit on a bench in the museum and look at that painting.
Did you ever work out why the woman has the shits with the dog?
My favorite Hopper is the Long Leg:
https://www.edwardhopper.net/the-long-leg.jsp
When we moved to Manhattan in 2000, my wife and I had little more than the clothes on our back. The second thing we bought for our tiny, overpriced East 7th Street walk-up, after a futon to sleep on, was this poster to put on our wall. We kept it in our living room, and in subsequent living rooms, for many years. It always makes me happy.
r/accidentalhopper is an interesting subreddit where people share photographs that look like Hopper paintings.
A few gems;
