Others of Edward Hopper's paintings
addressed the recreational languor of rural life. While a scene such as this one, titled The
Long Leg, does not show skyscrapers or streets, it remains inextricably tied to
the imagery of American life. Pictured
here is a beach in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
Undertones of solitude pervade the calm, quiet scene. Obviously the lone sailboat is quite a
distance out from the shore and the small lighthouse just beyond. It seems to be drifting tranquilly out to
open sea, where many hazards await; but here, now, the scene is peaceful. The bright colors here offer a change in tone
from the artist's earlier Automat work, but the serenity operates toward the
same thematic ends, to motifs of lonesomeness and abandonment, only with added
subtlety and, in fact, beauty. The lure
of a painting such as this is that it can evoke a type of sadness with such
delicacy and calmness that it almost becomes desirable, or simultaneously sad
and contented. All the gentle colors seem
to encourage the slow, graceful motion of the boat across the water and into
the uncertainty of the sea. There is
poignancy in the boat's departure expressive of the artist's detachment from
society here.
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