Bridle Path, 1939

Melinda Lang: Bridle Path is one of Hopper's most unusual paintings. In this work, he chooses to capture the pathway through Central Park that is used by equestrians for horseback riding.

Narrator: Senior Curatorial Assistant Melinda Lang.

Melinda Lang: When Hopper set out to make this painting, he made several trips to Central Park to this particular site. He would return day after day to collect more information. He was very set on capturing the rock formations that you see here, the pastoral landscape set within this urban metropolis. And while making sketches for this painting, he observed the people on horseback, but did not actually depict the riders in his studies. 

Narrator: In a drawing nearby, you can see the street lamp that he had originally positioned where the horseback riders ended up. 

Melinda Lang: While working on this painting in the studio, he actually flipped through photographs of horses in magazines and then used a book on horse anatomy as source material. I think the awkwardness of the movement here actually makes the painting more interesting in a way, because it shows you how amazing, how much of an expert he was at depicting the rock formations and the surrounding trees and the dirt and the architecture, which almost are more alive than the figures.