A LA RECHERCHE DE - IN SEARCH OF...: January 2023

Edward Hopper: Looking Through a Window at Light

A striking theme in Edward Hopper's paintings is isolated people looking out through a city window at the light; they are almost always alone. Maybe the primary relationship at that time is with the light. Sometimes, the frame is reversed and Hopper and we the viewer is looking in through the window at a lighted room, with a person partially visible. Sometimes, there is only a lighted room and we are looking in from the outside; the twilight, the background, the building, always the light.

Office in a Small City, 1953. oil on canvas.

Morning Sun, 1952. oil on canvas.

Morning in a City, 1944. oil on canvas.

A Room in Brooklyn, 1932. oil on canvas.

Night Windows, 1928. oil on canvas.

House at Dusk, 1935. oil on canvas.

Edward Hopper: City Infrastructure for Transport

Edward Hopper keenly observed the infrastructure of New York city, choosing carefully what he wanted to show and what he wanted to leave out.

Approaching a City, 1946. oil on canvas.

From Williamsburg Bridge, 1928. oil on canvas

Manhattan Bridge Loop, 1928. oil on canvas.

Macomb's Dam Bridge, 1935. oil on canvas.

Blackwell's Island, 1928. oil on canvas.

Edward Hopper: City Buildings

Edward Hopper's cityscapes are structural and architectural, but have few people. The two in the last painting of the brownstones are standing in front of windows looking out at the light shining on Central Park.

Apartment Houses, East River, 1930. oil on canvas.

Early Sunday Morning, 1930. oil on canvas.

The City, 1927. oil on canvas. The painting above shows the area on Washington Square where Edward Hopper lived. It was modernizing , with big new buildings cutting off the older apartment buildings, a process which is continuing today.

Sunlight on Brownstones, 1956. oil on canvas.

Edward Hopper: People are not the Center

When people do appear in Edward Hopper's paintings, they are almost incidental.

Familiar themes of city buildings, looking through windows at light. And aloneness.

New York Pavements, 1924-25. oil on canvas

New York Restaurant. 1922. oil on canvas.

Room in Brooklyn, 1932. oil on canvas.

Night Windows, 1928. oil on canvas.

Carpaccio

National Gallery, January 2023 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vittore_Carpaccio

Vittore Carpaccio lived & worked in Venice 1465 to 1525. He was a master draftsman and artist.

Below, Venice in about 1500.

Above, Consignment of the Umbrella to the Doge in Ancona. 1507/8. pen and ink. This drawing shows the three world leaders of the day: the pope at center, the Holy Roman (German) Emperor to the left, and the doge of Venice to the right.

Below, Doge Leonardo Loredan. 1501- 4. oil on panel.

The Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand Christians on Mount Ararat. 1515. oil on canvas.

Grassland Walk, January 2023

Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust in Huntingdon Valley, PA.

Downed Wood

Woodlands are having a hard time. Climate change, drought, pests and diseases, introduced invasive weeds and vines, stormwater erosion, and big storms, like tornados. There is downed wood everywhere. The first photo shows a big Sycamore down after a wind storm. The second shows tree damage from a tornado in 2021, which tore through tree canopy near Fort Washington. The last two photos are walking along the Schuylkill River. None are unusual or remarkable areas.