House in Italian Quarter 1923

Edward Hopper made this watercolour, House in Italian Quarter, with washes of blue, yellow, and burnt umber. I wonder what it was like for him, painting outside. The wind probably made the paper flap around a bit, and the sun would have changed pretty quickly. I imagine him squinting, trying to capture the light hitting the side of that yellow house. That yellow is so beautiful, and he’s used it to pick out the geometry of the house against the sky. The brushstrokes are quick and confident, suggesting how he’s not trying to copy the scene, but to offer an interpretation of it. There’s a kind of quiet energy to the scene, a balance between the familiar and the slightly odd. The painting becomes a space for us to explore our own responses to the everyday, and maybe even feel a little less alone in the world.