Ground Swell
Edward Hopper, 1939
Image not available: work still under copyright
Edward Hopper painted this seascape in 1939 and it shows five people aboard a heeling catboat riding a gentle swell. Nobody looks at anyone else; every gaze falls on a bell buoy rocking among the waves, whose clanging seems to warn of hidden danger. The mood is strange because the light is bright and blues and whites dominate, while the greenish buoy, streaked with brown seaweed, is the only dark note. On the far horizon, a dark band and wispy cirrus clouds hint at a coming storm. The picture relates to other American boating scenes, such as those by Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer. In Homer's work the crew looks hopefully toward the horizon, whereas Hopper lets a sense of threat sit beneath the calm. Some scholars suggest the painting may reflect the unease of 1939, the year World War II began, though this remains an interpretation. Hopper worked on it in his studio in Truro, Massachusetts, after making several preparatory sketches. It now belongs to the Corcoran Collection at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
- Painter
- Edward Hopper
- Date
- 1939
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 92 × 127 cm
- Museum
- Galería Nacional de Arte, Washington, D.C.
- Genre
- marine art
- Depicts
- sailboat, sailing, wind wave, water, buoy, wave, sailor, human