Cape Cod Evening

1939

Edward Hopper

Painter, American, 1882 - 1967

A light-skinned man and woman and a collie dog are outside a white house at the edge of a pale peach field of grass in this horizontal painting. Taking up a bit more than the top right quadrant of the composition, the house is white with pale blue shadows. Near the back, left corner of the house, the door has two tall, inset frosted glass panels and a shallow roof supported with scrolling, carved corbels. The door is flanked by a bay window on the left and a single window on the right. A shadowy grove of blue-green trees grows to the left of the house with one branch reaching toward the bay window. The woman faces us and stands between the bay window and door with downcast eyes and folded arms. Her blond hair is pulled or brushed back, and she wears a snug fitting, calf-length teal-blue dress. The man sits on the doorstep so his knees are angled to our left. His near arm drapes over his left knee and his far hand reaches toward the dog, his fingers and thumb touching. He has short blond hair and a ruddy face, and he wears a white t-shirt and olive-green pants. The dog stands in the middle of the field with its body angled to our right, its pointed ears and tail pricked up as it swivels its head to look to our left. It has an auburn-brown coat with white belly, chest, and tip of the tail. There are a few areas of spearmint green in the otherwise peach-colored grass, which is tall enough to brush the belly of the dog. The artist signed the lower right, “EDWARD HOPPER.”

Media Options

This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.

Edward Hopper painted Cape Cod Evening in 1939 in Truro, a small fishing village on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The artist stated: “It is no transcription of a place, but pieced together from sketches and mental impressions of things in the vicinity. . . . The dry, blowing grass can be seen from my studio window in the late summer or autumn. In the woman I attempted to get the broad, strong-jawed face and blond hair of a Finnish type of which there are many on the Cape. The man is a dark-haired Yankee. The dog is listening to something, probably a whippoorwill [sic] or some evening sound.” According to his wife, the painting was originally to have been titled “Whippoorwill,” after the nocturnal bird known for its distinctive song.

This enigmatic composition is the result of a long process of deliberation that can be traced in Hopper’s surviving preparatory drawings. Several aspects of the scene are disturbing: typical of the human protagonists of Hopper's paintings, the man and woman—presumably a couple—are self-absorbed and oblivious to each other's presence; the uncut grass and encroaching locust grove are out of character with the well-maintained house; the dog's alert stance seems a portent of some imminent danger; and the advancing darkness of evening imparts a melancholy mood. In Cape Cod Evening, Hopper presents an assemblage of carefully orchestrated dissonances that convey a generally pessimistic, skeptical attitude toward human identity and humanity’s relationship with nature.

On View

East Building Ground Level, Gallery 106-C

Order reproductions from the Gallery Shop

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    John Hay Whitney Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 76.2 x 101.6 cm (30 x 40 in.)
    framed: 106.7 x 132.1 cm (42 x 52 in.)

  • Accession

    1982.76.6

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  American Paintings, 1900–1945: Cape Cod Evening, 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), at least in 1943.[1] Encyclopaedia Britannica Collection, New York, by 1945;[2] purchased 1948 by William Benton [1900-1973], New York;[3] purchased 14 September 1950 by John Hay Whitney [1904-1982], Manhasset, New York; deeded 1982 to the John Hay Whitney Charitable Trust, New York; gift 1982 to NGA.
[1] The painting was lent by the Rehn Gallery to a 1943 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in New York.
[2] The painting is included in the 1945 catalogue of the Encyclopedia Britannica Collection.
[3] Collector, politician, and publisher, Benton was chairman of the board of Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1943

  • American Realists and Magic Realists, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1943, no. 18.

1950

  • Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Detroit Institute of Arts, 1950, no. 51, pl. 17.

1955

  • National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, 1955.

1960

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection, Tate Gallery, London, 1960-1961, no. 34, repro.

1963

  • Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1963.

1964

  • Edward Hopper, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Arts; City Art Museum of St. Louis, 1964-1965, no. 35, repro.

1980

  • Edward Hopper: The Art and The Artist, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Hayward Gallery, London; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Stadtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf; Art Institute of Chicago; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1980-1982, unnumbered catalogue, pl. 418.

1983

  • The John Hay Whitney Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983, no. 70, repro.

1989

  • Edward Hopper, Musée Cantini, Marseille; Fundación Juan March, Madrid, 1989-1990, unnumbered catalogue and repro. (Marseille), no. 18 and repro. (Madrid).

1992

  • Edward Hopper 1882-1967, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt; Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1992-1993, no. 68, repro.

  • Edward Hopper und die Fotografie, Museum Folkwang Essen, Germany, 1992, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

1995

  • Edward Hopper and the American Imagination, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1995, unnumbered catalogue, pl. 38.

1998

  • Treasures of Light: Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, March-April 1998, no catalogue.

  • American Light: Selections from the National Gallery of Art, Art Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, May-August 1998, no catalogue.

  • Gifts to the Nation from Mr. and Mrs. John Hay Whitney, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998-1999, no catalogue.

2004

  • Edward Hopper, Tate Modern, London; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2004-2005, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2006

  • Full House: Views of the Whitney's Collection at 75, Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 2006.

2007

  • Edward Hopper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago, 2007-2008, no. 93, repro.

2012

  • Hopper, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Réunion des Musées Nationaux and Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2012-2013, no. 51, repro.

Bibliography

1945

  • Pagano, Grace. Contemporary American Painting: The Encyclopedia Britannica Collection. New York, 1945: 57, color repro.

1971

  • Goodrich, Lloyd. Edward Hopper. New York, 1971: 129, repro. 136.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 571, no. 870, color repro.

  • Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper. New York: Crown Publishers, 1984, p. 57, color repro.

1987

  • Hobbs, Robert C. Edward Hopper. Washington, D.C., 1987: 107-110, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 180, no. 67, color repro.

  • Liesbrock, Heinz. Edward Hopper: Vierzig Meisterwerke. Munich, Germany, 1988: 25-26, color pl. 21.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 206, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 251, repro.

  • Liesbrock, Heinz. Edward Hopper: Das Sichtbare und das Unsichtbare. Stuttgart, Germany, 1992: 47-52, color repro.

1993

  • Little, Carl. Edward Hopper's New England. San Francisco, 1993: xv, repro.

1994

  • Strand, Mark. Hopper. Hopewell, New Jersey, 1994: 21-22, repro.

1995

  • Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonne. 4 vols. New York, 1995: 3:264, repro.

  • Kranzfelder, Ivo. Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Vision of Reality. Cologne, 1995: 95, color repro. 96-97.

  • Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography.1st ed. New York, 1995: 321.

1997

  • Lyons, Deborah. Edward Hopper: A Journal of His Work. New York, 1997: 51, repro.

2000

  • Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 164-165, color fig. 170.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 405, no. 336, color repro.

2008

  • Nemerov, Alexander. "Ground Swell: Edward Hopper in 1939." American Art 22, no. 3 (Fall 2008): 55-56, fig. 4.

2011

  • Little, Carl. Edward Hopper's New England. San Francisco, 2011: 18, 82-83, color plate 31.

2012

  • Brock, Charles. “George Bellows: An Unfinished Life.” In George Bellows ed. Charles Brock (Exh. cat. Washington 2012). Munich, 2012: 26, color fig. 20.

2016

  • National Gallery of Art. Highlights from the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Washington, 2016: 306, repro.

Inscriptions

lower right: Edward Hopper; lower right on reverse of frame: frame made for / Edward Hopper by / Carl Sandelin framemaker / 133 E 60th St NYC.

Wikidata ID

Q20193203

You may be interested in

Loading Results