The painting “Railroad Sunset” was created by the American artist Edward Hopper in 1929. This oil on canvas artwork belongs to the New Realism art movement and measures 121.9 cm by 74.3 cm. The genre of the painting is landscape, and it currently resides in the Whitney Museum of American Art located in New York City, NY, US.
“Railroad Sunset” showcases a sublime display of the sky at dusk where the sunset imbues the horizon with warm tones of reds and oranges contrasted by the cooling shades of blues and the emerging darkness above. This gradation of colors creates a striking backdrop for the silhouette of a railroad signal tower, standing as a stark, dark form against the illuminated sky. The foreground is dominated by the dark horizontal lines of the railroad tracks that stretch across the canvas, suggesting both stillness and the potential for motion and travel. The painting is characterized by a sense of desolation and contemplation, as there are no visible human figures, which is a common theme in Hopper’s work, reflecting his interest in solitude and the beauty of transient moments. The somber tones and the emphasis on geometric simplicity, alongside the subtle interplay of light and shadow, are typical of Hopper’s evocative style.