Description:
large white house with green shutters, bay windows left and right, and small columned porch in center, green lawn with shrubs around house, part of a tree branch at left, blue sky with small white cloud at upper right, part of another house visible at left edge; architecture; landscape; vegetation; outdoor
Label Text:
Most of Edward Hopper’s work is a commentary on the detachment and alienation of modern life. The buildings in his paintings often appear to be uninhabited. In Pretty Penny, Hopper includes subtle indications of life in the glow of lamplight in the windows. But there is also an eerie sense of absence. The front door is ajar, with no one to offer a welcome.
This painting, which depicts the former home of actress Helen Hayes and her husband, playwright Charles MacArthur, is the only work that Hopper ever did on commission. The house is in Nyack, New York, Hopper’s birthplace. Its nickname, “Pretty Penny,” poked fun at the MacArthurs’ substantial investment in its renovation, which obliged Hayes to extend her engagement with the radio show The New Penny.
Subjects:
Canvas Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1965.4 |
