In Summer In The City, painted in 1949, the sun streams into a room where a man lies nude against the wall, face down on a bed, in the right portion of the composition. A woman in a pink shift sits on the edge of the bed, her arms crossed on her knees. Ten years later Hopper searches through his motif collection and paints Excursion Into Philosophy.

Too much has been made of Jo Hopper’s remark that the “open book is Plato, reread too late.” Once paintings were completed, the Hoppers liked to make up stories about them, like naming the woman “Toots” in Second Story Sunlight.
What remains is the fact that this is one of Hopper’s most powerful and memorable paintings, one in which each viewer finds his own personal script.
The final drawing has resolved the picture - all that’s left is the act of painting.

Excursion Into Philosophy, 1959, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches, Private Collection