Second Story Sunlight
Edward Hopper, 1960
Image not available: work still under copyright
Second Story Sunlight shows two women of different ages on the balcony of a white house. The older one, in a dark dress and with white hair, reads a newspaper, while the younger, blonde and in a swimsuit, leans on the railing and gazes into the distance, a posture that echoes the loneliness found in many of Hopper's scenes. Behind them stands an identical building without a balcony, with a porch and a red awning, set against green trees. Hopper aimed for sunlight as white as possible, using almost no yellow pigment, which gives the scene a cool, luminous clarity. His wife Jo is said to have posed for both figures, though the neighbors Marie Stephens and her daughter Kim dispute this. Some critics read the pair as an allegory of winter and spring, or of life and death, an interpretation the painter never confirmed. Hopper himself described it as beautiful and vibrant yet unshowy, and counted it among his personal favourites.
- Painter
- Edward Hopper
- Date
- 1960
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 100 × 130 cm
- Museum
- Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
- Depicts
- chimney, swimsuit, window blind, window, house, forest, woman