The artwork “Street Corner” by Edward Hopper created in 1923 is a watercolor representation of the New Realism art movement, showcasing a genre known as cityscape. It captures an ordinary urban environment with a keen focus on the play of light and shadow, as well as the architectural forms that define American city life during the early twentieth century.
The artwork presents a composition of residential buildings at a street intersection. The perspective taken by Hopper imbues the scene with a sense of depth and space, as the viewer’s eye is led along the converging lines of the sidewalks and roads. The foreground is dominated by the corner of a white house with distinct shadow patterns emphasizing its three-dimensional form. A series of houses, depicted in various earthy tones and with sharp contrasts of light and dark areas, occupy the middle ground, extending to the background where the depth of space is further accentuated by the diminishing scale of the structures.
An electrical pole stands in stark contrast to the linear facets of the architecture, adding a vertical component to the horizontal expanse. The absence of figures in the artwork suggests a moment of solitude or stillness in what might otherwise be a bustling urban setting. The use of watercolor allows for a fluidity and transparency in the hues that capture the vibrancy and fleeting nature of daylight, an effect that Hopper masterfully employs to convey the mood and atmosphere of the scene. The overall effect of the artwork is one that reflects an everyday reality with a sense of quietude and contemplation often found in Hopper’s works.