Early Sunday Morning 1930

Edward Hopper made this painting of a street scene, “Early Sunday Morning”, sometime in the 1930s, with oil on canvas. Hopper was a master of light and shadow, and the way he uses them here gives the scene a quiet, almost eerie feeling. The paint is applied smoothly, but you can still see the brushstrokes in the red brick of the buildings. Look how Hopper handles the light. It’s not harsh, but soft, creating long shadows that stretch across the sidewalk. There’s this one window, slightly ajar, with a shadow that cuts across the frame – it’s a simple detail, but it adds so much mystery to the scene. You can almost feel the stillness of the morning. Hopper’s work always reminds me of other American painters, like Charles Burchfield, who were also interested in capturing the everyday beauty and strangeness of American life. Like them, Hopper shows us how much there is to see in the ordinary.