American Art Collaborative

Edward Hopper and his wife first visited Cape Cod in 1930, and they built a house there four years later. Since he had started painting watercolors a decade previously, Hopper was enjoying considerable success and, in 1933, he was given a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. Typical of watercolors from this period, House with Big Pine is a study of planar relationships, of light modifying faceted surfaces. As was his custom, Hopper added tension to the composition by foregrounding a utility pole and guiding the eye to this Eastham residence from beyond a fenced yard across the street.