Gas
Edward Hopper, 1940
Image not available: work still under copyright
Gas is a 1940 oil on canvas in which Edward Hopper paints a filling station beside a rural road as evening settles. The scene does not depict one specific place: it combines features of several gas stations the painter had visited, and he is said to have long wanted to paint the motif, which gave him real difficulty. According to his wife Josephine, Hopper wanted the pumps lit up, yet stations in his area switched their lights on only in full darkness to save energy, so the contrast between artificial light and the last glow of day becomes the core of the image. A lone attendant, in vest, white shirt and tie, tends one of three pumps, and his formal dress and isolation lend the scene an almost solemn air. The picture sits between civilization and nature: the dark asphalt receding in perspective, the pine edge and dry yellow grass meet the red and white glow of the station. Hopper had treated the road as a recurring subject since 1927, and this ambivalence between urban and rural space recurs in his other works. The painting departs from his preliminary studies in many details.
- Painter
- Edward Hopper
- Date
- 1940
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 26 × 40 cm
- Museum
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- Movement
- Regionalism, American realism, social realism
- Genre
- genre art
- Depicts
- gas pump, filling station, Mobil, forest, grass, shack, man