Yonkers

The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (the USA).

Canvas, oil.

In terms of technique, the urban landscape of the artist’s early period is closest to Impressionism, which Edward Hopper admired so much that he called himself an impressionist even in the 1960s. The humpbacked street of a city in southeastern New York lives in the usual fuss. The emphasis is on the yellow tram. However, while mature works of the master represent a dark and deserted world and frozen figures of people, here is the mood of life, its movement and the sun. It illuminates the dome of the cathedral and a flag flutters in the wind in a nearby building. The work differs from the later ones in the quality of the painting – brush strokes are live, the palette is bright; there are no geometrically verified lines.