Night Shadows - from Six American Etchings portfolio

Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper revisits the same New York City street corner he depicted in his 1913 oil painting, "Corner Saloon". In this image, however, he has removed the saturated color and light, making way for a monochromatic palette and an skewed bird's-eye view that renders the scene suspenseful. A streetlamp pushes the shadows to the edges of the plate though they seem to want to crowd inward toward the lone man.

"Night Shadows" was included in a portfolio of six images by important American modernist artists, published by The New Republic and offered to subscribers. The other artists were Peggy Bacon, John Sloan, John Marin, Kenneth Hayes Miller, and Ernest Haskell. An edition of around 500 was printed between 1924 and 1925.

Done early in his career, "Night Shadows" came on the heels of Hopper's earlier, more Impressionistic style and as he entered into the sparse, modernist style he would become known for. Additionally, he was coming to the end of nearly a decade of prolific etching, having focused his attention on the medium after he returned from France, when he found that his paintings did not yet earn him an audience. Suffice it to say, this period of stripping down elements on the plate likely helped forge his future as a painter, his stark, unglamorous, but emotional portrayals of city life establishing him as one of America's leading Realists.