My favorite of the paintings in the power point of houses in American Art was probably one of the simplest ones in the group, entitled “Tract House, Vineland, NJ” by artist Frank Webster. I tried to insert a photo of the painting here, but the blog is just not letting me do that, so I’ll just say that it’s slide number 49 in the power point and it depicts a typical, one story suburban home without much detail. The painting appears very uncomplicated, and it’s almost void of all color. It doesn’t have a lot of emotion to it like some of the paintings do, like the sinister shadow of the new house, or the liveliness of the many well-populated paintings in the slideshow. It even lacks the loneliness of Hopper’s pieces.
I think the reason I like it so much is that it’s representative of the average American house while lacking all of the qualities in the other paintings that make the structure a home. When I look at the painting, I see a suburban house that’s probably surrounded by others just like it. It’s empty: it’s been moved out of already and is awaiting new owners. The washed out color and the lack of detail makes it appear to be the shell of a home: a blank canvas for a new family to move into and personalize and add their own color and story.
It’s not that I dislike color; I actually adore bright and bold colors. But something about the potential of the empty home in this painting makes me smile. It’s as if the artist wanted to strip away everything that made the house unique and present the simplest structure for the viewer to see where most American’s homes begin before they gain all of the attributes that make them emotionally important to their past and present occupants. “Little Boxes” actually popped into my head when I first looked at it.