Edward Hopper
born: July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967
Biography:
Edward Hopper’s paintings of empty streets and starkly lit buildings have become American icons. Born in 1882 in Nyack, New York, Hopper trained at the New York School of Art (1900–06), studying with Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller, among others. From Henri, especially, he learned to focus on painting scenes of modern life.
From 1906 to 1910, Hopper made several trips to France. Although the use of light and color by the Impressionists affected his palette, his favorite painters were Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. From looking at the works of these nineteenth-century artists, Hopper learned about form and design as well as how to place figures in architectural settings to create mood.
For a decade, Hopper worked to integrate what he had learned into outdoor scenes of urban and rural America. He became associated with the American Scene painters, yet unlike the work of Midwestern Regionalist artists such as Grant Wood, he made light and the solitude of contemporary urban life major themes of his art. At the same time, he believed that in trying to capture a scene he was trying to paint himself. By the 1920s, Hopper had achieved the precise, starkly lit, sophisticated work for which he became best known.
Born in Nyack, New York to a prosperous dry-goods merchant, Hopper studied commercial art and painting in New York City. One of his teachers, artist Robert Henri, encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world". Henri, an influence on Hopper, motivated students to render realistic depictions of urban life. Henri's students, many of whom developed into important artists, became known as the Ashcan School of American art.
Upon completing his formal education, Hopper made three trips to Europe to study the emerging art scene there, but unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, the idealism of the realist painters resonated with Hopper. His early projects reflect the realist influence. Eschewing the usual New England subjects of seascapes or boats, Hopper was attracted to Victorian architecture, although it was no longer in fashion. According to Boston Museum of Fine Arts curator Carol Troyen, "He really liked the way these houses with their turrets and towers and porches and mansard roofs and ornament cast wonderful shadows. He always said that his favorite thing was painting sunlight on the side of a house." [1] While he worked for several years as a commercial artist, Hopper continued painting.
According to Troyer, Hopper's "breakthrough work" was The Mansard Roof, painted in 1923 during Hopper's first summer in Gloucester, MA. "For the 10 years previous, he hadn't sold a single painting," according to Troyer. His former art school classmate and later wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper, suggested he enter it in the Brooklyn Museum annual watercolor show, along with some other paintings. The Mansard Roof was purchased by the museum for its permanent collection, for the sum of $100. [1]
In 1925 he produced House by the Railroad, a classic work that marks his artistic maturity. The piece is the first of a series of stark urban and rural scenes that uses sharp lines and large shapes, played upon by unusual lighting to capture the lonely mood of his subjects. He derived his subject matter from the common features of American life — gas stations, motels, the railroad, or an empty street.
Hopper continued to paint in his old age, dividing his time between New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. He died in 1967, in his studio near Washington Square, in New York City. His wife, painter Josephine Nivison, who died 10 months later, bequeathed his work to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Other significant paintings by Hopper are at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Edward Hopper’s paintings of empty streets and starkly lit buildings have become American icons. Born in 1882 in Nyack, New York, Hopper trained at the New York School of Art (1900–06), studying with Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller, among others. From Henri, especially, he learned to focus on painting scenes of modern life.
From 1906 to 1910, Hopper made several trips to France. Although the use of light and color by the Impressionists affected his palette, his favorite painters were Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas. From looking at the works of these nineteenth-century artists, Hopper learned about form and design as well as how to place figures in architectural settings to create mood.
For a decade, Hopper worked to integrate what he had learned into outdoor scenes of urban and rural America. He became associated with the American Scene painters, yet unlike the work of Midwestern Regionalist artists such as Grant Wood, he made light and the solitude of contemporary urban life major themes of his art. At the same time, he believed that in trying to capture a scene he was trying to paint himself. By the 1920s, Hopper had achieved the precise, starkly lit, sophisticated work for which he became best known.
Born in Nyack, New York to a prosperous dry-goods merchant, Hopper studied commercial art and painting in New York City. One of his teachers, artist Robert Henri, encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world". Henri, an influence on Hopper, motivated students to render realistic depictions of urban life. Henri's students, many of whom developed into important artists, became known as the Ashcan School of American art.
Upon completing his formal education, Hopper made three trips to Europe to study the emerging art scene there, but unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, the idealism of the realist painters resonated with Hopper. His early projects reflect the realist influence. Eschewing the usual New England subjects of seascapes or boats, Hopper was attracted to Victorian architecture, although it was no longer in fashion. According to Boston Museum of Fine Arts curator Carol Troyen, "He really liked the way these houses with their turrets and towers and porches and mansard roofs and ornament cast wonderful shadows. He always said that his favorite thing was painting sunlight on the side of a house." [1] While he worked for several years as a commercial artist, Hopper continued painting.
According to Troyer, Hopper's "breakthrough work" was The Mansard Roof, painted in 1923 during Hopper's first summer in Gloucester, MA. "For the 10 years previous, he hadn't sold a single painting," according to Troyer. His former art school classmate and later wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper, suggested he enter it in the Brooklyn Museum annual watercolor show, along with some other paintings. The Mansard Roof was purchased by the museum for its permanent collection, for the sum of $100. [1]
In 1925 he produced House by the Railroad, a classic work that marks his artistic maturity. The piece is the first of a series of stark urban and rural scenes that uses sharp lines and large shapes, played upon by unusual lighting to capture the lonely mood of his subjects. He derived his subject matter from the common features of American life — gas stations, motels, the railroad, or an empty street.
Hopper continued to paint in his old age, dividing his time between New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. He died in 1967, in his studio near Washington Square, in New York City. His wife, painter Josephine Nivison, who died 10 months later, bequeathed his work to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Other significant paintings by Hopper are at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
painting gallery
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his work:
The best known of Hopper's paintings, Nighthawks (1942), shows customers sitting at the counter of an all-night diner. The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the gentle night outside. The diners, seated at stools around the counter, appear isolated.
Hopper's rural New England scenes, such as Gas (1940), are no less meaningful. In terms of subject matter, he can be compared to his contemporary, Norman Rockwell, but while Rockwell exulted in the rich imagery of small-town America, Hopper depicts it in the same sense of forlorn solitude that permeates his portrayal of city life. Here too, Hopper's work exploits vast empty spaces, represented by a lonely gas station astride an empty country road and the sharp contrast between the natural light of the sky, moderated by the lush forest, and glaring artificial light coming from inside the gas station.