The Camel's Hump 1931

Edward Hopper made "The Camel's Hump" with oil on canvas, and just look at that light. I can feel the sun on those hills. You can tell Hopper really laid it on thick here, especially in those foreground hillocks. The paint is worked and dense, full of physical presence. He wasn’t trying to hide the fact that this is paint! I can feel the materiality, that push and pull of moving the brush, mixing shades of yellow, brown, and green right on the canvas. What was Hopper thinking, working on such a large scale? Did he try to embody the spirit of this rural landscape? I imagine him squinting at the light, trying to capture a certain feeling. I can see him, wrestling to capture that moment, that quiet grandeur. Hopper's landscape reminds me of Fairfield Porter's paintings, of de Kooning, or even Milton Avery. Artists are always in dialogue, echoing and responding to each other, across time.