Cobbs Barns and Distant Houses 1930

Edward Hopper painted ‘Cobbs Barns and Distant Houses’ with oil on canvas, and what strikes me first is its direct, almost blunt application of colour. There’s a real sense of Hopper allowing the paint to just be itself. The physicality of the paint, the way it sits on the canvas, is key. See how the strokes are visible, not blended away, especially in the foreground? The texture of the strokes create a visual hum. Take for example the shadow on the red barn. That thick band of umber isn’t just shadow, it’s a palpable mass. It gives the barn weight, anchoring it to the land. The opacity in the application of paint gives the scene an evocative quality. Hopper’s simplicity reminds me a little of Fairfield Porter, another painter who found beauty in the everyday, but with Hopper, there's always this undercurrent of something unsaid, a quiet melancholy. Art isn't about answers, it's about the questions it raises, and Hopper asks some good ones.