Playing the Hopper card in Truro

AMONG ART aficionados, Edward Hopper's name commands a deserved reverence, as much for his fame and influence as for his expertly rendered images. But among residents of what was once Hopper's summer neighborhood, the late artist's reputation has a much more useful application - as a means to stop or slow down construction of yet another oversized trophy house on the rolling hills of South Truro, overlooking Cape Cod Bay.

The preservation of the so-called "Hopper landscape" - that is, undeveloped parcels near the house that was once Hopper's a half-century ago - has been a goal of both abutters and the Truro Conservation Trust for almost a decade, and has already resulted in a couple of small open-space purchases. But the biggest plum of all, an already-developed, 9.5-acre lot in the direct view of the large, north-facing window in what was once Hopper's studio, was deemed too costly by the trust when it came on the market. Now the new owners plan to expand an existing 2,000-square-foot house and turn it into a sprawling, 6,500-square-foot mini-palace, complete with a swimming pool, all within a stone's throw of the beach.

With nothing in local zoning bylaws or state septic regulations to prevent such a house - far from the first of its ilk on the Outer Cape - from being built, abutters obviously more concerned about their own views than anyone else's raised the Hopper flag and worked the media.

Public "awareness" having been raised, they gathered 300 signatures on a petition asking the Truro Selectmen to stop the plans of Donald and Andrea Kline for the property next to the "Hopper House," though it is unclear exactly what the selectmen can do. Theoretically, the selectmen could refer it to the Cape Cod Commission, but it doesn't meet the usual criteria, in terms of scale or regional impact, for review by the panel.

Opponents' best hopes may have rested not on the invocation of Hopper's name but rather in a state environmental evaluation of the project's impact on a rare groundcover plant species, broom crowberry, which is common in the "hogback" hills of Truro but found almost nowhere else in the Commonwealth. On Monday, word came down from the state: no further environmental review is needed, as the owners have promised to protect their broom crowberry.

So now it's back to playing the Hopper card, with some calling upon the Klines to honor the area's cultural significance by perhaps moving their new house to a less prominent spot on the property. But that could also trigger new environmental issues.

This is not the first time Hopper's name has been bandied about in Truro for less than altruistic aims. For years, a local gas station laid claim to having been the subject of a 1940 Hopper painting, "Gas," despite bearing little resemblance to the painting and despite having been built in the late 1940s, making it an unlikely subject, indeed. (The station no longer exists, having burned down accidentally several years ago.)

It's hard to know what Edward Hopper, who died 40 years ago, might think of this latest controversy. As a letter in a local paper noted last week, construction of Hopper's house in 1934 was itself an intrusion on South Truro's unspoiled landscape. And while Hopper was not especially political, his conservative leanings and reclusive lifestyle make it easy to imagine him coming down on the side of individual property rights more than preservation of a view he painted very little.

Best known for his urban interiors and rural architectural studies (many of which were painted in Truro), Hopper was far more interested in the light coming through his window than the view outside. And he probably couldn't have cared less about the feelings of his neighbors; he wanted to do his work and be left alone.

In that sense, Hopper's spirit is maintained by the house's current owners, who have preserved his studio and lent images of it to various causes but only rarely open their doors to the public. After all, when it comes to preservation, privacy can be a valuable commodity, too. It certainly was to Hopper.

Hamilton Kahn, a Wellfleet resident, is the host of "In The News" on WOMR in Provincetown.

Correction: An op-ed Friday incorrectly described plans for property next to the former summer house of artist Edward Hopper in Truro. The owners plan a new 6,500-square-foot house in addition to an existing house, not as an expansion of the existing house.