Ground Swell

1939

Edward Hopper

Painter, American, 1882 - 1967

A buoy and a sailboat with three men and a woman tip at an angle on rolling aquamarine and azure-blue waves in this horizontal painting. The white wooden boat sails away from us toward the right side of the composition. Its unfurled sail is tinged with taupe and pale blue and attached to a pale wooden mast. The boat has a low cabin with round portholes on the side we can see. Two of the men are shirtless, tanned, and have their backs to us. One sits in the cockpit wearing a white hat with a short brim as he holds the tiller. The other man stands on the deck with his arms crossed. Beyond the standing man, the woman lies along the roof of the cabin, her head at about the height of the man’s chest. She is barefoot and lies on her stomach wearing long, blue pants and a watermelon-pink halter top and matching kerchief covering her hair. The third man stands to her right, his slender body angled toward us while holding onto the mast with one hand and rigging with the other. The woman and third man have noticeably pale skin. A buoy near the boat is battleship-gray with streaks of rust along its base and a copper-green bell inside. It floats just to the left of and tips toward the boat on a rising swell. The scene is lit by bright sunlight coming from the left side of the baby-blue sky with bands of feathery clouds, which takes up the top two-thirds of the composition. The artist signed the lower right, “EDWARD HOPPER.”

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Edward Hopper’s lifelong enthusiasm for the sea developed when he was a boy in Nyack, New York, then a prosperous Hudson River port with an active shipyard. Years later, in 1934, he and his wife built a house and studio in South Truro, Massachusetts, where he produced a number of oil paintings and watercolors manifesting his avid interest in nautical subjects.

Despite its bright palette and seemingly serene subject, Ground Swell echoes the themes of loneliness and escape typical of Hopper's oeuvre. The blue sky, sun-kissed figures, and vast rolling water strike a calm note in the picture; however, the visible disengagement of the figures from each other and their noticeable preoccupation with the bell buoy placed at the center of the canvas call into question this initial sense of serenity. The lone dark element in a sea of blues and whites, the buoy confronts the small catboat in the middle of an otherwise empty seascape. Its purpose, to emit a warning sound in advance of unseen or imminent danger, renders its presence in the picture ominous. The cirrus clouds in the blue sky—often harbingers of approaching storms—reinforce this sense of disturbance in the otherwise peaceful setting. Although Hopper resisted offering explanations of his paintings, the signs of impending danger here may also reference a more severe disturbance: during the time that Hopper worked on Ground Swell, from August to September 15, 1939, World War II broke out in Europe.

Ground Swell (English)
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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

Video:  Inside the Corcoran’s Incredible Art Collection

From 1869 to 2014, the Corcoran Gallery of Art was one of the oldest art museums in the United States, reflecting the country’s move from the ashes of the Civil War into the 21st century.

Video:  Edward Hopper's "Ground Swell" (ASL)

This video provides an ASL description of Edward Hopper's Ground Swell.

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Ground Swell, 1939

Video:  Ground Swell: Edward Hopper in 1939

This nearly square painting shows an industrial area with buildings, storage silos, a smokestack, and railroad tracks. A mound of brown dirt or other material is in shadow in the lower left corner of the painting. Next to the mound, railroad tracks extend diagonally from the lower center of the painting into the distance to our right. The tracks end at a white building with staggered gray rooflines to our right in the distance. A tall terracotta-red smokestack rises high beyond the white building, smoke pouring out of its top and blending into the clouds above. Just beyond the mound of dirt, piles of white material, perhaps in unseen bins, line the railroad track to our left and lead back to a row ten interconnected, coral-orange silos. The horizon comes about halfway up the painting, and it is lined with a row of long white and gray warehouses. The artist signed and dated the work with brown paint in the lower right corner: “Sheeler 31.”

Scholarly Series:  American Paintings, 1900–1945

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery, New York); purchased 1943 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington;[1] acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] The painting was purchased from the Corcoran's 1943 Eighteenth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1940

  • Second Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 9 March - 21 April 1940, no. 93, repro.

  • The Cranbrook-Life Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Museum, Bloomfield, Michigan, 17 May - 2 June 1940, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

  • Survey of American Painting, Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 24 October - 15 December 1940, no. 329, pl. 121.

1943

  • Eighteenth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Oil Paintings, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 March - 2 May 1943, no. 98.

1944

  • Sport in American Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 10 October - 10 December 1944, no. 69, repro.

1947

  • Sports and Adventure in American Art, Milwaukee Art Institute, 15 February - 30 March 1947, no catalogue.

1949

  • The Coast and the Sea, a Survey of American Marine Painting, Brooklyn Museum, 19 November 1948 - 16 January 1949, no. 64, repro.

1950

  • Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts, 11 February - 2 July 1950, no. 52, pl. 20.

  • By the Sea [15-venue tour organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York], first 7 venues did not include Ground Swell; Washington Workshop, Washington, D.C.; Rhode Island League for Arts and Crafts, Providence; Pennsylvania College for Women, Pittsburgh; Quincy Art Club, Illinois; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester; Hamline University, St. Paul; Albion College, Michigan; State Teachers College, Potsdam, New York, 14 September 1950 - 7 June 1951, no catalogue.[1]

1953

  • Judge the Jury, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 13 February - 22 March 1953, no catalogue.[2]

1955

  • Sport in Art from American Collections Assembled for an Olympic Year, Time and Life Building Reception Hall, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts; Denver Art Museum; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; Dayton Art Institute, 31 October 1955 - 28 October 1956, no. 53, repro.

1964

  • Edward Hopper, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Arts; City Art Museum of St. Louis, 29 September 1964 - 9 May 1965, no. 36, repro.

1967

  • Sao Paolo 9: United States of America / Estados Unidos da America, Edward Hopper [and] Environment U.S.A., 1957-1967, Museum of Modern Art, Sao Paulo; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, 22 September 1967 - 24 March 1968, no. 21.

1972

  • Edward Hopper: Fifteen Paintings, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach; Pasadena Art Museum, 12 January - 23 April 1972, no catalogue.

1976

  • Corcoran [The American Genius]. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 24 January - 4 April 1976, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1980

  • Americans at Work and Play, 1845-1944, University Art Museum, University of Texas at Austin, 6-20 March 1980, no. 36, repro.

  • Guy Pène du Bois: Artist About Town, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha; Mary and Leigh Block Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston, 10 October 1980 - 10 May 1981, no. 98, repro.

1981

  • Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 23 September 1981 - 21 May 1983, no. 54, repro.

1985

  • Henri's Circle, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 April - 16 June 1985, unnumbered checklist.

1989

  • Edward Hopper, Musée Cantini, Marseille; Fondation March, Madrid, 23 June 1989 - 4 January 1990, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1998

  • The Forty-Fifth Biennial: The Corcoran Collects, 1907-1998, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 17 July - 29 September 1998, unnumbered checklist, repro.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 27 August 2005 - 29 April 2007, checklist no. 93.

2007

  • Edward Hopper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 May 2007 - 11 May 2008, no. 74, repro.

2009

  • American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June - 18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.

2012

  • Hopper, Museo Thyssen-Bornemizsa, Madrid, 12 June 2012 - 28 January 2013, no. 47, repro.

2013

  • American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

Bibliography

1940

  • "A Remarkable Exhibition of Italian Paintings." Richmond Times-Dispatch (24 February 1940).

  • Cottrell, Ann. "2 Unknown Win Medals in Biennial." Richmond Times-Dispatch (10 March 1940): 18.

  • "Here, There, Elsewhere." New York Times (10 March 1940): 160.

1943

  • Watson, Jane. "Corcoran Show, Although Small, Displays Freshness and Spirit [exh. review]." The Washington Post (21 March 1943): L4.

  • "Corcoran Gallery Buys Work of Seven American Artists [exh. review]." The Washington Evenig Star (18 March 1943): 2.

  • Berryman, Florence S. "Corcoran Art Gallery's Biennial Exhibition [exh. review]." The Washington Sunday Star (21 March 1943): E:5.

  • The Poe Sisters. "Corcoran Art Preview Here Draws Crowd [exh. review]." Washington Times Herald (21 March 1943): B:1.

1944

  • J. D. M. "Sport in American Art: Boston Show is 'Big League Stuff' to Sports Writers." Magazine of Art 37 (December 1944): 297 repro.

1945

  • Edward Hopper. American Artists Group Monograph no. 8. New York, 1945: n.p., repro.

1947

  • Corcoran Gallery of Art. Handbook of the American Paintings in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1947: 83.

1949

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. Edward Hopper. Harmondsworth, England, 1949: pl. 20.

1950

  • Aldow, Dorothy. "Edward Hopper, Yankee Classicist [exh. review]." Christian Science Monitor (25 February 1950): 12.

  • "Edward Hopper: Famous American Realist has Retrospective Show." Life 28, no.16 (17 April 1950): 104, 105 repro.

  • "News of Art and Artists [exh. review]." Washington Star (1 October 1950): C:3.

1957

  • Tyler, Parker. "Hopper/Pollock: The Loneliness of the Crowd and the Loneliness of the Universe: An Antiphonal." Art News Annual 26 (1957): 95, 98-99 repro.

1962

  • New York Graphic Society. Reproductions of American Paintings. New York, 1962: 95 under no. 6004, repro.

1965

  • Stevens, Elisabeth. "A Nosegay of 19th Century Art." The Washington Post (27 June 1965): G:7.

1968

  • Wilmerding, John. A History of American Marine Painting. Salem, Massachusetts, 1968: 37 repro., 42.

1971

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. Edward Hopper. New York, 1971: 120, repro. 125.

1973

  • Phillips, Dorothy W. A Catalogue of the Collection of American Paintings in the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vol. 2: Painters born from 1850 to 1910. Washington, 1973: 113-114, repro. 113.

1977

  • Matusovskaia, Elena Mikhatovna. Edward Hopper. Moscow, 1977: pl.16.

  • Young, Mahonri Sharp. American Realists: Homer to Hopper. New York, 1977: 198 repro.

1980

  • Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist. Exh. cat. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hayward Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf; Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1980-1982. New York, 1980: 43, pl. 185.

  • Stein, Susan Alyson. "Hopper: The Uncrossed Threshold." Arts 54 (March 1980): 150 repro., 160.

  • Weyergraf, Bernd. "Licht von der Seite und Eyes Examined: Hopper und Marsh." Amerika: Traum und Depression, 1920/40. Exh.cat. Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin, 1980: 154 repro.

1981

  • Levin, Gail. "Hopper's America." Bijutsu Techo 33 (March 1981): 164 repro.

1982

  • Baur, John I. H. American Masters of the Twentieth Century. Exh. cat. Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, 1982: 60.

1987

  • Levin, Gail. Twentieth-century American Painting. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. London, 1987: 209.

  • Wilmerding, John. American Marine Painting. Rev. ed. of A History of American Marine Painting, 1968. New York, 1987: 179 repro., 180.

1991

  • Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. The Biennial Exhibition Record of the Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1907-1967. Madison, Connecticut, 1991: 154.

1993

  • Little, Carl. Edward Hopper's New England. San Francisco, 1993: pl. 19.

1994

  • Kranzfelder, Ivo. Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Vision der Wirklichkeit. Cologne, 1994: 106 repro.

1995

  • Constantino, Maria. Edward Hopper. Greenwich, 1995: 82, 83 repro.

  • Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonné. 4 vols. New York, 1995: 1:83; 3:266, 267 repro.

  • Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography.1st ed. New York, 1995: 314-315, 360, 426.

1998

  • Simmons, Linda, et al. The Forty-fifth Biennial: The Corcoran Collects, 1907-1998. Exh. cat. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 1998: cover, 47 repro.

  • Gedzelman, Stanely David. "Sky Paintings: Mirrors of the American Mind." Weatherwise 51 (January/February 1998): 65 repro.

  • Lewis, Jo Ann. "The Corcoran Biennial: Delivery on Collection [exh. review]." Washington Post (19 July 1998): G:1.

  • Shaw-Eagle, Joanna. "For Corcoran, 'Forty-Fifth' is the No.1 Exhibit [exh.review]." The Washington Times (26 July 1998): D:1, repro.

  • Burchard, Hank. "Corcoran Biennial: A Retreat in Reverse [exh. review]." The Washington Post (7 August 1998): N: 55, repro.

  • Kilian, Michael. "Corcoran Exhibit Traces Art's Meanderings." Chicago Tribune (23 August 1998): 3.

  • Dorsey, John. "Framing the Century: Corcoran Gallery Highlights the Best Works from Its Forty-four Biennials [exh. review]." Baltimore Sun (3 September 1998): F:3, repro.

1999

  • Stephen, May. "The Old and the Beautiful." Art News 98, no.7 (Summer 1999): 36.

  • Mecklenburg, Virginia M. Edward Hopper: The Watercolors. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., 1999: 141, 161.

2000

  • Smeaton, Suzanne. " On the Edge of Change: Artist-Designed Frames from Whistler to Marin." In The Gilded Edge: The Art of the Frame. Edited by Eli Wilner. San Francisco, 2000: 70, 80 repro.

  • Cash, Sarah, with Terrie Sultan. American Treasures of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. New York, 2000: 185, repro.

2001

  • Strand, Mark. Hopper. New York, 2001: 22 repro., 23, 25.

  • Coyle, Laura, and Dare Myers Hartwell, eds. Antiquities to Impressionism: The William A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, DC, 2001.

2002

  • Moss, Dorothy. "Ground Swell." In A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Edited by Eleanor Heartney. London, 2002: 109, 110 repro.

2004

  • May, Stephen. "Edward Hopper's Maine." Portland Magazine (July-August 2004): 36-37, repro.

2006

  • Lerner, Mark. "Hopper's 'Ground Swell,' Awash in Neglect." The Washington Post (1 January 2006): 5.

  • Genocchio, Benjamin. "Thrilling and Hypnotic: Masterworks with Major Impact [exh. review]." The New York Times (11 June 2006): 12 repro.

  • "Hopper Work is Subject to Talk." Southampton Press (22 June 2006): B:8.

  • Ernst, Eric. "American Classics, Up Close and Personal [exh. review]." Southampton Press (6 July 2006): B:1, B:7.

  • Goodrich, John. "Museums: Travelling Icons of American Art [exh. review]." The New York Sun (6 July 2006): 16.

  • Maschal, Richard. "Strokes of Genius [exh. review]." The Charlotte Observer (1 October 2006): E:3, repro.

  • "Mint Museum to Host Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (6 October 2006): 17 repro.

  • Shinn, Susan. "Viewing Masters: 'Encountering American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art' Opens at the Mint [exh. review]." Salisbury Post (12 October 2006): D:7, repro.

2007

  • Bennett, Lennie. "The Coming of Age of American Art [exh. review]." St. Petersburg Times (18 February 2007): 9L repro.

  • Matheny, Lynn K. "Edward Hopper." American Art Review 19, no. 5 (September-Ocotber 2007): 169 repro.

  • Gopnik, Blake. "Edward Hopper and the Rising Tide of War- Wide Angle: Dissecting 'Ground Swell'." The Washington Post (18 November 2007): M:1, 8-9 repro.

2008

  • Strand, Mark. Hopper. Barcelona, 2008: 50-52, 51 repro., 54, 111, 114.

  • Nemerov, Alexander. "Ground Swell: Edward Hopper in 1939." American Art 22, no. 3 (Fall 2008): 50-71, color repros. cover, 50-51; color figs. 12, 14.

  • Pittura Americana del XIX secolo. Exh. cat. Museo di Santa Giulia, Brescia, Italy, 2008: 225 repro.

2011

  • Greenhalgh, Adam. "Edward Hopper, Ground Swell." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 248-249, 282-283, repro.

  • Little, Carl. Edward Hopper's New England. San Francisco, 2011: 17, 56, 57 repro.

  • Marco Goldin. Van Gogh and Gauguin's Journey: Variations on a Theme. Translated by David Kerr. Exh. cat. Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, 2011: 162, 163 repro.

  • Strand, Mark. Hopper. New York, 2011: 26, 27 repro.

2013

  • Lipiński, Filip. "Hopper wirtualny: Obrazy w pamiętającym spojrzeniu." Ph.D. dissertation, Uniwersytet Adam Mickiewicz, Poznań, 2013. Toruń, 2013: 404, 523, 615, color fig. 179.

2015

  • Beaux Arts Magazine no. 373 (July 2015): cover, table of contents, guide insert.

Inscriptions

lower right: EDWARD HOPPER; on reverse of frame: frame made for / Edward Hopper by / Carl Sandelin framemaker / 133 E 60th St NYC.
Reverse, lower right: "Frame made for / Edward Hopper by / Carl Sandelier frame maker / 133 East 60th Street, NYC"

Wikidata ID

Q20193215

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