In the travel section in this Sunday’s NYTimes, there was an interesting article about Edward Hopper’s work on the Cape in Turo, Mass where he spent his summers. The Swope’s painting by Hopper, Route 6, Eastham, was done in this area. An interesting read.
The Sheldon Swope Art Museum collects, preserves, and shares American art to engage a diverse audience.
The Swope’s Hopper oil is unquestionably one of his finest accomplishments.
And it is very fortunate that the buildings in Eastham by Route 6 that inspired Hopper’s masterpiece still stand.
The New York Times article about Hopper’s Cape Cod mentions the sad fact that the stunning natural landscape adjoining the studio Hopper built for himself in 1934 is being interrupted by the construction of a huge new private home that will dwarf everything around it.
My wife and I were staying in the Hopper studio this fall and watched daily in fascinated horror as a large crew worked overtime to build this monstrosity. It is a terrible loss to the art legacy Hopper gave to all of us.
Hopper’s imagination interacted with the external world in a remarkably poetic way. The last bit of unspoiled land that influenced him as he painted for 30 years on Cape Cod is something that really belonged to all of us. It is being taken from us now.