Cape Cod Reverie

In the 1930s, Edward Hopper and his wife Jo often painted in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

In Ryder's House, Edward Hopper conveys senses of distance and alienation that characterize much of his work. He achieved this aura by simplifying his subjects and changing details to suit his artistic vision.

Ryder's House, which he initially kept for his personal collection, shows a home that had been built sometime before 1839. A traditional Cape Cod "house and a half," it was (and is) a clapboard structure that had been altered over the years. The exterior and parts of the interior, however, still retained the early character of the house, although in Hopper's oil it appears to be stucco rather than frame. Hopper aged the surface by scumbling layers of gray-white pigment one over another. Rather than depicting the house from the front or the back, which would have indicated the actual size of the substantial dwelling, Hopper painted the end of the kitchen ell and a separate shed, both of which were later additions, making the house seem much smaller and simpler than it actually was.

Learn more about the artist in our online exhibition An Edward Hopper Scrapbook. Be sure to hear him describe his painting process!

Source: Virginia Mecklenburg. Edward Hopper: The Watercolors (Washington, D.C.: National Museum of American Art in cooperation with W.W. Norton & Company, 1999).

Pictured top: Edward Hopper, 1882–1967, Ryder's House, 1933, oil, 36 1/8 x 50 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design.

Pictured bottom: Photographic portrait of Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Peter A. Juley and Son Collection.