Route 6 Eastham

Route 6 Eastham is a scenic painting that was created in 1941 by Edward Hopper. Like many other paintings by Hopper, this work is created in colour and represents an everyday scene from the USA in the 1940s.

Edward Hopper devoted much of his life to capturing brief glimpses of American life and in fact Route 6 Eastham is a part of the USA that Hopper was very familiar with.

One of the reasons that this painting has gained so much acclaim over the years is the fact that it demonstrates extraordinary use of pastoral light and colour.

Due to the exceptional skill of the artists, the ordinary and even mundane has been made to look appealing and inviting.

In the case of Route 6 Eastham, Hopper has used light in such a way that each of the objects in the painting appear to be isolated, even though the houses and bushes are grouped together in the centre of the painting.

Edward Hopper developed his mature artistic style in the 1920s and most of his works of art have been created by extensively studying his objects and subjects.

Because light features prominently in his works, he often visited the same scenes and locations at different times of day to discover the perfect time to capture them.

Other paintings that Edward Hopper is noted for include Nighthawks, which he painted in 1942, and Early Sunday Morning, which was painted in 1930. To many critics, the colourful and yet stark compositions of Hopper’s works of art was a direct commentary on the mundane nature of American society during this period of time.

Most of the subjects that are included in the paintings that Edward Hopper created would be formerly dressed and looking down at the ground as though reflecting on their own nature and problems rather than interacting with the other people around them or responding to their surroundings, which could be seen and representing isolation.