Portrait of Orleans

Edward Hopper

1882–1967

Portrait of Orleans, 1950

Oil on canvas

Gift of Jerrold and June Kingsley

Edward Hopper’s symbolic portrait of Orleans, a town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, documents the dramatic transformation of the American landscape after World War II. The vantage point is that of a car driver who will either continue straight onto Main Street or turn right onto Route 6A. In this nostalgic view of Main Street America, the stilled pedestrian, car, and clock all seem to suggest that time has stopped.

However, the modern Esso gas station sign in the foreground documents the post–World War II growth of corporate culture in general and car culture in particular. The prominent telephone pole lacks wires and thus functions more like a symbolic cross on a religious pilgrimage route. The gas station enabled motorists to continue on their journey to the resort towns of Cape Cod, where Hopper had built a house in 1934, while the small-town way of life epitomized by Orleans rapidly receded into the distance.