House at Dusk, 1935

Narrator: In descriptions of Hopper’s work, critics have tended to use the word “alienation” a lot. Artist Eddie Arroyo has explained that he sees this painting differently. 

Eddie Arroyo: I like that some of the lights and the windows are on, some of them are off, so it's like this quiet moment. The palette is beautiful in terms of the muted aspect of it. And this meditative aspect of it, more about just taking a moment and really being comfortable with the space that the figure's in right now. 

The focal point is the figure in solitude and that it sits below this very balanced, natural landscape. In this particular painting, in my opinion, it's more about focusing on the importance of nature over the colonization or the development of the land in general.

Narrator: One of the things that is so striking about this painting is the way Hopper gives us such a partial, fragmentary view of a building that suggests the presence of many inhabitants but shows us only one. The apartment house itself also feels like it’s an inhabitant, a human intrusion into nature, suggested by the trees that dominate the background and turn this into an urban landscape rather than a traditional cityscape.