Edward Hopper

From Williamsburg Bridge, 1928. Edward Hopper. Oil on canvas. George A. Hearn Fund, 1937.
In From Williamsburg Bridge, Hopper depicts the austere facades of four apartment buildings and reduces the steel suspension bridge that gives the painting its name to the margins. Completed in 1903 and connecting Brooklyn with Manhattan, the structure is indicated only by the unobtrusive railing rising at a slight diagonal along the bottom of the canvas. As opposed to focusing on the bridge that facilitates movement in and out of the city, Hopper creates an image absent of noise or motion. He emphasizes the alienation and anonymity of urban life by including a single figure: a woman sitting alone in a top story window.