American Landscape 1920

Edward Hopper made this etching, ‘American Landscape,’ with ink on paper. Look how the image emerges from the darkness, the density of the ink marks creating a palpable sense of weight. I imagine Hopper hunched over a metal plate, intensely focused, scratching lines to conjure this desolate scene. The bleakness gets to me! The way the house sits in the background like an isolated tomb, and the looming presence of the beasts, all feel ominous. The whole thing has a strange geometry, the horizontal line slicing through the composition and the diagonals of the roof. These feel like abstract gestures as much as representations of real objects. What was Hopper thinking? Was he also feeling the weight and darkness of his scene? Hopper’s ability to evoke loneliness and alienation continues to resonate. He reminds us that artists are always in dialogue, building upon and responding to what came before, wrestling with the same feelings that we do.