After Paris, Hopper's palette lightened up. Before his visits, his study of the old masters such as Goya, El Greco and Diego Velazques lead Hopper to embrace dark interiors.

The influence of the Impressionists caused Hopper to embrace light colors and to paint with quick strokes. Even late in his career, decades after his visits to Paris, Hopper said, "I think I'm still an Impressionist."

But for most observers, Hopper's art seems to have little in common with Monet, Cezanne or Van Gogh. Hopper summed up what he felt was important. He said, "for an American painter, in general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.”

One of Hopper's most influential teachers was New York's Ashcan School painter, Robert Henri. Henri encouraged students to "make a stir in the world" ... "It isn't the subject that counts but what you feel about it." Another Henri quote put the same thought this way, "Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life."

Hopper valued solitude in his personal life, and he made it the subject of his paintings. In both the urban settings of New York City and the rural scenes in Maine where he spent his summers, he explored how individuals are wrapped in cocoons of solitude.

In Railroad Sunset, the subject is a solitary control room atop the railroad tower. It is set against a wide, deep and empty landscape, rainbowed with grays, purples, yellows and oranges. The fading sunset is reflected on the parallel rails of track.

Hopper manages to paint a similar painting, this time at sunrise in crowded Manhattan. In Apartment Houses, East River, Hopper shows a wide sky with a line of identical apartment blocks awaiting the rising sun, each window providing an isolated apartment dweller's view of the approaching day.

Again, in Cape Cod Sunset, Hopper creates contrast between interior and exterior space.

Most artists painting a portrait of a house would place it front and center. Landscaping would be presented to frame and complement the house. But Hopper shows the house as an intruder into the wide and deep landscape. Its windows with shades and draperies allow us from the outside a glimpse of the dark interior.

Whether it was an urban or rural setting, Hopper drew a distinction between solitary individuals and the outside world.

In New York Movie, Hopper captures a uniformed usherette stealing a quiet solitary moment while a film is playing. She is standing, illuminated by a dim shaded courtesy lamp located near the stairway up to the projectionist's room. Around the corner in the darkened theater, movie patrons view a film. But the usherette isn't watching the film. She's lost in her private world, her concerns, and is not part of what is going on around her.

Hopper's wife Jo served as Hopper's model for his paintings. Critics mused that the usherette is similar to the bored waitress in Edouard Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergeres.

Both Manet's barmaid and Hopper's usherette are bored and apart from where they are. The grandeur and glamour of their workplaces has no effect on them. Although they are serving others engaged in entertainment and escape, they are both lost deep within their own sense of emptiness and solitude.

For Hopper, windows worked two ways. Not only did they provide an opportunity to peek out, but they provide a passer by the opportunity to peek in. For Hopper, widows are the bridge between the inner thought and public discourse, the boundary between the private and the public self.

In Seven AM, he pictures a neat early morning storefront before the shop owner and patrons begin their day. Its neat lines and white walls are contrasted with the blue of an early morning sky and the dark indistinct green trees to the left, heavily drenched in early morning shadow.

This store entrance is a very public place, but Hopper shows it alone, apart from commerce. He shows us public places have private moments too.

At first glance, some might categorize A Woman in the Sun as a nude. Really, it's not. Its not about her nudity at all. It is about her, privately, as she is.

She has not yet dressed or applied makeup for her public face. She is alone, unmasked, peering out into the light of the coming day. Her unlit cigarette shows the depth of her thought, unhurried and introspective. Her stance is vertical, contrasting with her horizontal shadow. She appears to be contemplating the challenges which await her with the coming day.

The Whitney Museum had only one painting by Andrew Wyeth, Winter Fields done in 1942.

It is similar to Hopper's compositional elements, a wide horizon and sky with a solitary subject in the foreground. But Wyeth's subject is a dead frozen crow. It's about death.

This painting was done during the early days of WWII. It is believed Wyeth is commenting on the deadly costs of war. The location of this painting is the Brandywine Valley near Wyeth's home in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania. It was the site of a Revolutionary War battle. Wyeth is also making reference to the United States war with Germany and Japan.

Both Linda and I were struck by a glaring comparison.

At MOMA, Wyeth's Christina's World and Hopper's New York Movie were hanging in a place where they could be easily over looked ... in a busy corridor ... next to an escalator ... just steps from the rest rooms.

At the Whitney, Wyeth's Winter Fields and all the Hopper paintings pictured in this article are displayed in spacious well lighted galleries. Hopper's Early Sunday Morning had a wall of its own. While we were there, a class of younger school children were gathered on the floor with their teacher guiding them as they expressed their impressions of the painting.

MOMA seems willing to display Wyeth and Hopper as excess inventory, seeming left-overs after hanging their more prestigious paintings. On the other hand, the Whitney honored Wyeth and Hopper, elevating their importance and emphasizing education.

Why does MOMA persist in this placement of Wyeth and Hopper in the corridor? We are not the only people to notice. Andrew Wyeth's artist son Jamie uses humor to express his alarm. He tells the story of an usher at MOMA who tells of the most common questions he is asked. The usher said, "There are two questions, and both have the same answer. One is, 'Where is the men's room?' and the other is 'Where is Christina's World?'"

Beyond Linda's studio, her paintings are currently showing at:

Bodega Landmark Gallery Collection,
located in the town of Bodega, west end of town a half block from the Casino, and just across from the General Store and the Bodega Volunteer Fire Department.

Corrick's "Art Trails Gallery,
located in downtown Santa Rosa on 4th Street, just steps from Santa Rosa's reopened Town Square.

6th Street Playhouse, The Red Shoes Gallery
6th Street Playhouse, The Studio Gallery,
52 W. 6th Street, Santa Rosa.

Bentonville, AR
Crystal Bridges
Museum of American Art

... IN GRATON, CA ...
Linda Sorensen's studio and Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's showroom is now located in Atelier One, Graton. You may view all paintings in Linda Sorensen's or Bodega Bay Heritage Gallery's online offerings. Call or email for an appointment.

... IN YOUR HOME ... Call or email for a an appointment. If appropriate, we'll bring the art to you (up to 200 miles from Bodega Bay).

... ON LINE ... Call or email about pieces which interest you. We offer FedEx shipping (included in price) in the U.S. for major purchases.