Aug 10, 2008
THIS time of year Corn Hill Beach in Truro, Mass., on the outer arm of Cape Cod, is a joyful, teeming playground. At low tide, the warm water of Cape Cod Bay recedes to expose banks of smooth sand, which swarm with kids, dogs and blissfully vacationing parents. As the sun sinks toward Provincetown, it cuts through a hazy summer sky, shimmering off the quicksilver bay. It picks out Corn Hill, at the north side of the beach, and daubs the tiny cottages at its crest in sure, vibrant strokes.
At that moment, the sandy rise is no longer simply Corn Hill, the site of the Mayflower Pilgrims’ first encounter with the fruits of indigenous agriculture, but it is “Corn Hill,” Edward Hopper’s iconic 1930 oil painting.
Hopper spent nearly 40 of his 84 summers in Truro, the rolling, lightly populated stretch of the Cape between Provincetown and Wellfleet. Together, these three communities comprise the Outer Cape: lands that, while connected to the mainland, have long served as a haven for those seeking something different. The Pilgrims, who landed there in 1620, gave way to 19th-century whalers, and then to the artists, writers and freethinkers who began spending summers there nearly a century ago.
