Edward Hopper (1882-1967) lived and worked his whole life in New York. There was nothing sentimental about the way he depicted the city—he painted hotel lobbies and offices, movie houses and cafeterias, and railroad-station platforms. But never skyscrapers, despite the fact that this was the era of the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and Rockefeller Center. Of course, skyscrapers were glamorous, and Hopper had no interest in glamour or in conventional beauty. His home and studio for more than 50 years were the top floor of 3 Washington Square North, and Early Sunday Morning portrays a monotonous row of ordinary houses on nearby Seventh Avenue. It is a generic urban scene—businesses below, rented rooms above. The slightly varied storefronts act as a foil to the regular row of windows, whose staggered blinds and varied curtains are all that attest to human occupancy. "This is how we build our cities," Hopper seems to say without passing judgment.