All About Office in a Small City by Edward Hopper

Title of Artwork: “Office in a Small City”

Artwork by Edward Hopper

Year Created 1953

Summary of Office in a Small City

After renting a cottage in Truro, Massachusetts, in the summer of 1930, Edward Hopper and his wife continued to return to the area until the 1950s. After spending the summer of 1953 in Truro, Hopper began working on the painting he titled “Office in a Small City” in his New York studio. Instead of depicting the Cape Cod landscape in ‘Office in a Small City,’ however, the scene could have taken place in any mid-twentieth-century American town. “My aim was to try to give the sense of an isolated and lonely office interior rather high in the air, with the office furniture which has a very definite meaning to me.” says Hopper of his earlier work ‘Office at Night’ (1940; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis).

All About Office in a Small City

This scene features a lone office worker who is both physically and emotionally isolated. In his shirtsleeves, he appears to be daydreaming rather than working; there is no indication of what he does. Mass-produced office furniture and a sterile work environment reflect postwar American business culture. The man’s disconnection from his unseen coworkers is also evident. Despite the abundance of natural light and ventilation in his office, he appears to be confined. A window frames him, and his head is profiled against another window and a wall in a manner that suggests his confinement within his surroundings. While the man is alone, the contrast between the building’s utilitarian upper storey and its decorative false front suggests Hopper’s own ambivalence toward modern urban life.