Description
Hanging a hand-painted canvas of “The Bootleggers” in your living room is a quick way to make a statement in more ways than one. Edward Hopper painted few overtly political scenes in his lifetime, but this Hopper 1925 Gloucester painting strikes at the very nature of Prohibition. He renders a trio of lowly rumrunners on a just-launched boat of Cape Ann as they eyeball a stately house at dusk – and perhaps exchange looks with the faceless person outside. Inspired by a series of Gloucester bootlegging incidents in the first half of the decade, Hopper consciously makes the bootleggers the hero of this narrative work. Though a light drinker himself, the artist despised government regulation of social activity. Placing the title characters in a light-colored boat against a dark-tinged backdrop further emphasizes their righteousness in his eyes. Those who have their own contrarian spirit will adore the detailed waves and shoreline of our “The Bootlegger” reproduction that is insubordinate at heart.
