Type: Oil on canvas
Canvas Size: 66.7 x 102.2 cm
Location: Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
From: the Simon Guggenheim Fund
© Estate of Edward Hopper

Hopper completed the work when he was 58 years old. He had been married 16 years.

Gas is a place on the edge of the world, or the civilised world so to speak

Crikey! How flimsy manmade things look in the presence of Nature. It's like something out of the Wild West, the gas station a last bastion of the manmade world before you enter an overpowering woodland that has an entrance like a dark tunnel. Indeed, the human figure looks especially weak in its surroundings. Approaching darkness; approaching 'nothing'.

The sky is lighter than the cathedral of trees - it only emphasizes the 'bigness' of the woodland.

My intepretaion of the painting is entirely due to the darkened reproduction print I have of it. The lighter the repro, the softer is my response to Gas. But I love the dramatic, the black and white.

Random Hopper Fact
Began to paint with watercolours in 1923. He sold one to the Brooklyn Museum that year.

What Else Happened to Hopper in 1940?
Paints Office at Night. Motoring on West Coast.

Where Is The Painting Now?
Collection, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Edward Hopper exhibition posters @ ebay.com (direct link to exhibition posters) - they do come onto the market from time to time and usually look out of this world - imagine one framed on your wall!

Buy Print.