House by the Railroad
Edward Hopper, 1925
Image not available: work still under copyright
House by the Railroad, painted by Edward Hopper in 1925, shows an old Victorian house on the far side of a railway line. The tracks and sleepers fill the lower part of the canvas and act as a visual barrier between the viewer and the building. The scene is motionless: there are no people, no train passes, and the bleak landscape around the house adds to a feeling of isolation and distance. Hopper had recently returned to the United States after years in Europe, and works like this helped make him a leading figure of American Realism. He himself claimed there was nothing particularly expressive in the picture and that he had painted it objectively, yet its stillness has invited readings of loneliness and melancholy. Some viewers have seen the empty old house as a commentary on progress and urban expansion overtaking older buildings. The canvas entered the Museum of Modern Art in 1930, among its earliest acquisitions.
- Painter
- Edward Hopper
- Date
- 1925
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 24 × 29 cm
- Museum
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- Movement
- French Realism, American realism
- Genre
- architectural painting
- Depicts
- railway track, railroad tie, railway, Victorian house