Kelly Jenness House

Perched among the rolling hills of the New England countryside, this white farmhouse is the sort of ordinary place Edward Hopper found endlessly fascinating. He painted the Kelly Jenness House in 1931, giving us its tall chimneys, steep roof, and clean walls under a wide summer sky. The surrounding land rolls out in warm browns and golds, empty of people, leaving just the house and its quiet company of hills. Even in something this simple, Hopper managed to capture a feeling of stillness that borders on loneliness.

Watercolor was Hopper's medium of choice during his summers spent along the coasts of Maine and Massachusetts, where he worked outdoors and painted straight from life. That direct approach gives the picture an honest, unfussy quality, especially in the way sunlight slides across the roof and walls to make the house feel solid and real. Most people know Hopper for his oil paintings of hushed diners and lonely city streets, but these rural scenes reveal a different corner of his imagination, one tied to plain American buildings and the calm of a bright afternoon.