Hopper studied under Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller at the New York School of Art; although he was influenced by the Ashcan School, his work lacks its characteristic exuberance. Instead, a haunting stillness suffuses most of Hopper’s work, as if everything, both animate and inanimate, were caught in the eternal act of waiting. We feel the squalor and pathos of everyday life.

Hopper supported himself as a commercial artist and illustrator, and between 1915 and 1923 his fine art output was confined almost entirely to etching. The summer of 1923 he spent in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he began to paint watercolors regularly. One of these, Portuguese Church, shows some of his typical urban isolation but tempered by Hopper’s delicate color choices, reflecting the colors of the nearby sea. There is also a sense of release; the bright sunshine and the gaily waving flag suggest a time of summer leisure.