10 Watercolor artist | AUGUST 2019
Anatomy of a Painting
Edward Hopper,
En Plein Air
D. & R.G. Locomotive, painted during
a trip to Santa Fe, is a testament to the
artist’s formidable watercolor skills.By Jerry N. Weiss
T
he fame of Edward Hopper
(American, 1882–1967) rests
primarily on his oil paintings.
Canvases such as Nighthawks and Early
Sunday Morning were formulated in the
studio, the products of numerous pre-
paratory drawings intended to resolve
both composition and detail. Hopper’s
oils were the result of diligent labor.
His watercolors, however, refl ect a
more spontaneous approach. Unlike
the oils, he painted many of them in
front of the subject, en plein air.
Hopper was fascinated by the rail-
road throughout his creative life; he
drew, painted and etched railroad
tracks, freight cars, passenger car inte-
riors, urban rail tunnels, elevated rails,
and rural crossings. Even the houses
and hotels alongside the rail lines had
special resonance.
Th e artist painted D. & R.G.
Locomotive in 1925, a seminal year
in his career. He had only begun paint-
ing in watercolor two years earlier and
was already handling the medium with
confi dence. Major museums had begun
buying his work, and he decided to
devote himself entirely to his art. It
was the year he painted House by the
Railroad, the piece in which, according
to biographer Gail Levin, he “arrived at
his artistic maturity.”Th at same summer, Hopper and his
wife made a cross-country train trip
that ended in Santa Fe, N.M. Th e area
had become popular with artists, many
of whom, like Hopper, traveled from
the East Coast to explore the landscape
and Native American traditions. As it
happened, the area had little visual
appeal for Hopper. Th e mountains and
mesas left him cold, and he was unim-
pressed by Santa Fe, which as yet had
no street lights or paved roads.
What did interest him was a symbol
of the industrialization that he missed:
a locomotive from the Denver & Rio
Grande Railroad. Hopper painted its
crisp shapes and dark values silhou-
etted to striking eff ect against the
Western sky. It’s an example of his
impressive watercolor skill and ability
to work directly from the motif. WAJerry N. Weiss is a contributing writer
to fi ne art magazines. He teaches at the
Art Students League of New York.D. & R.G. Locomotive
(1925; watercolor and
graphite on paper, 13⅞ x20)
by Edward HopperThecompositionis
successful,inlarge
part, because of the
machine’s irregular
shapes and the
active diagonals
of clouds and
of shadows on
the ground.Hopper painted,in
effect, a profile portrait
of the locomotive.To
avoid producinga
static image,art
students oftenare
counseled not to place
a subject dead-center.
Hopper violated that
composition rule,yet
the design is effective.