House by the Railroad is a 1925 oil-on-canvas painting by the American artist Edward Hopper.[1]

House by the Railroad
ArtistEdward Hopper
Year1925
Catalogue78330
MediumOil on canvas
Subject49 Conger Avenue
Haverstraw, New York
LocationMuseum of Modern Art, New York
Accession3.1930

Background

edit

The house that is said to have inspired the painting is a Second Empire style Victorian mansion in Haverstraw, New York, where it still stands today.[2] The painting is reported to have influenced the Bates home in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho,[3] one of the homes in the 1956 film Giant directed by George Stevens, the home Charles Addams created for The Addams Family,[4][5] and the house in Days of Heaven.[6]

In 1929–30, the canvas was included in Paintings by 19 Living Americans, the Museum of Modern Art’s initial show solely of American art. MoMA acquired it in 1930, one of the inaugural pieces to become part of the then new art institution's holdings.[7] The work was donated to the MoMA by the Singer sewing machine company heir, art collector, and philanthropist Stephen Clark.[8]

See also

edit

References

edit
  1. ^ "Hirsch, Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad". english.emory.edu.
  2. ^ Kelley, Matt (2014-10-28). "Nyack Sketch Log: Halloween Edition: Hitchcock Meets Hopper in Haverstraw". Nyack News & Views. Retrieved 2023-10-23.
  3. ^ Winsten, Archer (June 13, 1960). "Rages and Outrages [interview with Alfred Hitchcock re: 'Psycho']". New York Post. Eighth, it may interest art lovers to know that the old house in 'Psycho' was inspired solely by Edward Hopper's painting of the house by the railroad.
  4. ^ Topliss, Iain (2005). The Comic Worlds of Peter Arno, William Steig, Charles Addams, and Saul Steinberg. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 140–143, 282.
  5. ^ Bochner, Paul (May 1, 1996). "Someplace Like Home". The Atlantic.
  6. ^ Almendros, Nestor (1986). A Man with a Camera. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
  7. ^ "Edward Hopper. House by the Railroad. 1925 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art.
  8. ^ Schwendener, Martha (25 May 2007). "Brotherly Art: The Clarks Who Collected". The New York Times.
edit