Editing Edward Hopper (section)

== Biography ==

=== Early life ===
[[File:Edward Hopper House.JPG|thumb|[[Edward Hopper Birthplace and Boyhood Home|Birthplace and childhood home]] of Edward Hopper in Nyack, New York]]
Hopper was born in 1882 in [[Nyack, New York]], a yacht-building center on the [[Hudson River]] north of New York City.<ref>{{cite ANB |title=Hopper, Edward |first=Gail |last=Levin |url=https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.1700423}}</ref><ref name="metmuseum" /> He was one of two children of a comfortably well-off family. His parents, of mostly [[Dutch people|Dutch]] ancestry, were Elizabeth Griffiths Smith and Garret Henry Hopper, a dry-goods merchant.<ref name=":1">{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=11}}</ref> Although not as successful as his forebears, Garret provided well for his two children with considerable help from his wife's inheritance. He retired at age forty-nine.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=9}}</ref> Edward and his sister, Marion, attended both private and public schools. They were raised in a strict [[Baptist]] home.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=12}}</ref> His father had a mild nature, and the household was dominated by women: Hopper's mother, grandmother, sister, and maid.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=23}}</ref>

His [[Edward Hopper Birthplace and Boyhood Home|birthplace and boyhood home]] was listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]] in 2000. It is now operated as the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.edwardhopperhouse.org/|title=Edward Hopper House|website=Edward Hopper House Museum and Study Center}}</ref> serving as a nonprofit community cultural center featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, performances, and special events.<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2009a}}</ref>

Hopper was a good student in grade school, and by the time he was five his talent with drawing was already apparent. He readily absorbed his father's intellectual tendencies and love of [[Culture of France|French]] and [[Russian culture|Russian]] cultures. He also demonstrated his mother's artistic heritage.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|pp=12, 16}}</ref> Hopper's parents encouraged his art and kept him amply supplied with materials, instructional magazines, and illustrated books.

[[File:"Vase" Earliest Signed Drawing by Edward Hopper.jpg|thumb|''Vase'' (1893), example of Edward Hopper's earliest signed and dated artwork with attention to light and shadow]]
Hopper first began signing and dating his drawings at the age of 10. Among the earliest of these drawings are charcoal sketches of geometric shapes, a vase, bowl, cup, and boxes.<ref name=":0">{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|pp=16–18}}</ref> The detailed examination of light and shadow that continued throughout his career is already visible in these early works.<ref name=":0" /> By his teens, he was working in pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor, and oil—drawing from nature while also making political cartoons.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=20}}</ref> In 1895, he created his first signed oil painting, ''Rowboat in Rocky Cove'', which he copied from a reproduction in ''The Art Interchange'', a popular journal for amateur artists. Hopper's other earliest oils, such as ''Old ice pond at Nyack'' and his c.1898 painting ''Ships,'' have been identified as copies of paintings by artists including [[Bruce Crane]] and [[Edward Moran]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Shadwick |first=Louis |title=The Origins of Edward Hopper's Earliest Oil Paintings |journal=The Burlington Magazine |volume=162 |date=October 2020 |pages=870–877}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Gopnik |first=Blake |title=Early Works by Edward Hopper Found to Be Copies of Other Artists |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/28/arts/design/edward-hopper-copies-paintings.html |website=The New York Times |date=October 2, 2020}}</ref>

In his early self-portraits, Hopper tended to represent himself as skinny, ungraceful, and homely. Though a tall and quiet teenager, his prankish sense of humor found outlet in his art, sometimes in depictions of immigrants or of women dominating men in comical situations. Later in life, he mostly depicted women as the figures in his paintings.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|pp=23, 25}}</ref> In high school (he graduated from [[Nyack High School]] in 1899),<ref name="trio">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/05/realestate/a-trio-of-villages-hugging-the-hudson.html|title=A Trio of Villages Hugging the Hudson|last=Brenner|first=Elsa|date=December 5, 2004|work=The New York Times|access-date=May 4, 2008}}</ref> he carved wooden models of sailboats and barges and dreamed of becoming a [[naval architect]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Shunnarah |first1=Mandy |title=10 Pieces of Unexpected Art from Historic Artists' Homes and Studios |url=https://savingplaces.org/stories/10-unexpected-art-hahs |website=National Trust for Historic Preservation |date=April 29, 2024}}</ref> but after graduation declared his intention to pursue a career in art. Hopper's parents insisted that he study commercial art to have a reliable means of income.<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 8">{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=8}}</ref> In developing his self-image and individualistic philosophy of life, Hopper was influenced by the writings of [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]]. He later said, "I admire him greatly...I read him over and over again."<ref>{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=16}}</ref>

Hopper began art studies with a correspondence course in 1899. Soon he transferred to the New York School of Art and Design, the forerunner of [[Parsons School of Design]]. There, he studied for six years with teachers including [[William Merritt Chase]], who instructed him in oil painting.<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 8" /> Early on, Hopper modeled his style after Chase and French Impressionist masters [[Édouard Manet]] and [[Edgar Degas]].<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=40}}</ref> Sketching from live models, however, proved challenging and somewhat shocking for the conservatively raised Hopper.

Another of his teachers, artist [[Robert Henri]], taught life class. Henri encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world." He also advised his students, "It isn't the subject that counts but what you feel about it" and "Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life."<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 8" /> In this manner, Henri influenced Hopper, as well as future artists [[George Bellows]] and [[Rockwell Kent]]. He encouraged them to imbue their work with a modern spirit. Some artists in Henri's circle, including [[John Sloan]], became members of "The Eight", also known as the [[Ashcan School]] of [[American Art]].<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 9">{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=9}}</ref> Hopper's first surviving oil painting to hint at his use of interiors as a theme was ''Solitary Figure in a Theater'' (c.1904).<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|p=19}}</ref> During his student years, he also painted dozens of nudes, still life studies, landscapes, and portraits, including self-portraits.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|p=38}}</ref>

In 1905, Hopper landed a part-time job with an advertising agency, where he created cover designs for trade magazines.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=48}}</ref> Hopper came to detest illustration. He was bound to it by economic necessity until the mid-1920s.<ref>{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=11}}</ref> He temporarily escaped by making three trips to Europe, each centered in Paris, ostensibly to study its art scene. In fact, he mostly worked alone and seemed mostly unaffected by the new currents in art. Later, he said he didn't "remember hearing of [[Pablo Picasso|Picasso]] at all".<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 9" /> He was highly impressed by [[Rembrandt]], particularly his ''[[Night Watch (painting)|Night Watch]]'', which he said was "the most wonderful thing of his I have seen; it's past belief in its reality."<ref>{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=17}}</ref>

[[File:Night on the El Train, 1918.jpg|thumb|''House Tops'' (1921) by Edward Hopper]]
Hopper began painting urban and architectural scenes in a dark palette. Then he shifted to the lighter shades of the [[Impressionism|Impressionists]] before returning to the darker palette, with which he was most comfortable. He later said, "I got over that and later things done in Paris were more the kind of things I do now."<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=66}}</ref> Hopper spent much of his time drawing street and café scenes, and going to the theater and opera. Unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract [[cubism|cubist]] experiments, Hopper was attracted to [[Realism (arts)|realist art]]. Later, he claimed few European influences other than [[Rembrandt]], [[Francisco Goya|Goya]] and the French engraver [[Charles Meryon]] whose moody Paris scenes Hopper imitated.<ref>{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Rodman |first=Selden |title=Conversations with Artists |location=New York |publisher=The Devin-Adair Co. |year=1957|page=199}}</ref>

=== Years of struggle ===
After returning from his last European trip, Hopper rented a studio in New York City, where he struggled to define his own style. Reluctantly, he returned to illustration to support himself. Being a freelancer, Hopper was forced to solicit for projects, and had to knock on the doors of magazine and agency offices to find business.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=85}}</ref> His painting languished: "it's hard for me to decide what I want to paint. I go for months without finding it sometimes. It comes slowly."<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 88">{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=88}}</ref> His fellow illustrator Walter Tittle described Hopper's depressed emotional state in sharper terms, seeing his friend "suffering...from long periods of unconquerable inertia, sitting for days at a time before his easel in helpless unhappiness, unable to raise a hand to break the spell."<ref>{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=53}}</ref>

From February 22 to March 5, 1912, he was included in the exhibition of The Independents, a group of artists at the initiative of [[Robert Henri]] but did not make any sales.<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 88" />

In 1912, Hopper traveled to [[Gloucester, Massachusetts]], to seek some inspiration and made his first outdoor paintings in America.<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 88" /> He painted ''Squam Light'', the first of many lighthouse paintings to come.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|p=88}}</ref>

In 1913, at the [[Armory Show]], Hopper earned $250 when he sold his first painting, ''Sailing'' (1911), to an American businessman Thomas F. Vietor, which he had painted over an earlier self-portrait.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|p=107}}</ref> Hopper was thirty-one, and although he hoped his first sale would lead to others in short order, his career would not catch on for many more years.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=90}}</ref> He continued to participate in group exhibitions at smaller venues, such as the [[MacDowell Club]] of New York.<ref>{{cite web |last=Levin |first=Gail |title=Hopper, Edward |website=American National Biography Online |date=February 2000 |url=http://www.anb.org/articles/17/17-00423.html |access-date=December 20, 2015}}</ref> Shortly after his father's death that same year, Hopper moved to the 3 [[Washington Square Park|Washington Square]] North apartment in the [[Greenwich Village]] section of [[Manhattan]], where he would live for the rest of his life.

[[File:Edward Hopper - Night Shadows - Oct 1922 Shadowland.jpg|thumb|''Night Shadows'' etching from ''[[Shadowland (magazine)|Shadowland]]'', 1922<ref>{{cite journal |last=Du Bois |first=Guy Pène |title=Edward Hopper, Draughtsman |journal=Shadowland |date=September 1922 – February 1923 |pages=21–22 |url=https://archive.org/details/shadowland07brew/page/n6/mode/2up}}</ref>]]
The following year, he received a commission to create some movie posters and handle publicity for a movie company.<ref>{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=227}}</ref> Although he did not like the illustration work, Hopper was a lifelong devotee of the cinema and the theatre, both of which he treated as subjects for his paintings. Each form influenced his compositional methods.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|pp=74–77}}</ref>

At an impasse over his oil paintings, in 1915 Hopper turned to etching. By 1923 he had produced most of his approximately 70 works in this medium, many of urban scenes of both Paris and New York.<ref>{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=12}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kranzfelder |first=Ivo |title=Edward Hopper, 1882–1967: Vision of Reality |location=New York |publisher=Barnes & Noble Books |year=2003 |page=13 |isbn=0760748772}}</ref> He also produced some posters for the war effort, as well as continuing with occasional commercial projects.<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 120">{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=120}}</ref> When he could, Hopper did some outdoor oil paintings on visits to New England, especially at the art colonies at [[Ogunquit]], and [[Monhegan Island]].<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|1980|pp=29–33}}</ref>

During the early 1920s his etchings began to receive public recognition. They expressed some of his later themes, as in ''Night on the El Train'' (couples in silence), ''Evening Wind'' (solitary female), and ''The Catboat'' (simple nautical scene).<ref>{{harvnb|Maker|1990|pp=13–15}}</ref> Two notable oil paintings of this time were ''New York Interior'' (1921) and ''New York Restaurant'' (1922).<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|pp=151, 153}}</ref> He also painted two of his many "window" paintings to come: ''[[Girl at Sewing Machine]]'' and ''Moonlight Interior'', both of which show a figure (clothed or nude) near a window of an apartment viewed as gazing out or from the point of view from the outside looking in.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|pp=152, 155}}</ref>

[[File:Smash The Hun - Dry Dock Dial cover.jpg|thumb|upright|Hopper's prizewinning poster, ''Smash the Hun'' (1919), reproduced on the front cover of the ''[[Morse Dry Dock and Repair Company#The Dry Dock Dial|Morse Dry Dock Dial]]'']]
Although these were frustrating years, Hopper gained some recognition. In 1918, Hopper was awarded the U.S. Shipping Board Prize for his war poster, ''Smash the Hun''. He participated in three exhibitions: in 1917 with the Society of Independent Artists, in January 1920 (a one-man exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club, which was the precursor to the Whitney Museum), and in 1922 (again with the Whitney Studio Club). In 1923, Hopper received two awards for his etchings: the [[Logan Medal of the Arts|Logan Prize]] from the [[Chicago Society of Etchers]], and the W.&nbsp;A. Bryan Prize.<ref>{{cite book |last=Levin |first=Gail |title=Edward Hopper at Kennedy Galleries |location=New York |publisher=Kennedy Galleries |year=1977 |chapter=Chronology}}</ref>

=== Marriage and breakthrough ===
[[File:Robert Henri - The Art Student (Miss Josephine Nivison).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Josephine Hopper|Miss Josephine Nivison]], by Robert Henri, 1906]]
By 1923, Hopper's slow climb finally produced a breakthrough. He re-encountered [[Josephine Hopper|Josephine Nivison]], an artist and former student of [[Robert Henri]], during a summer painting trip in Gloucester, Massachusetts. They were opposites: she was short, open, gregarious, sociable, and liberal, while he was tall, secretive, shy, quiet, introspective, and conservative.<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 120" /> With Jo's encouragement, Hopper turned to the medium of watercolor, producing numerous scenes of Gloucester. They married a year later with artist [[Guy Pène du Bois]] as their best man.<ref name=":1" /> Nivison once remarked: "Sometimes talking to Eddie is just like dropping a stone in a well, except that it doesn't thump when it hits bottom."<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 16">{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=16}}</ref> She subordinated her career to his and shared his reclusive lifestyle. The rest of their lives revolved around their spare walk-up apartment in the city and their summers in [[Truro, Massachusetts|South Truro]] on [[Cape Cod]]. She managed his career and his interviews, was his primary model, and was his life companion.<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 16" />

With Nivison's help, six of Hopper's Gloucester watercolors were admitted to an exhibit at the [[Brooklyn Museum]] in 1923. One of them, ''The Mansard Roof'', was purchased by the museum for its permanent collection for the sum of $100.<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 171">{{harvnb|Levin|1995b|p=171}}</ref> The critics generally raved about his work; one stated, "What vitality, force and directness! Observe what can be done with the homeliest subject."<ref name="Levin 1995, p. 171" /> Hopper sold all his watercolors at a one-man show the following year and finally decided to put illustration behind him.

The artist had demonstrated his ability to transfer his attraction to Parisian architecture to American urban and rural architecture. According to [[Boston Museum of Fine Arts]] curator Carol Troyen, "Hopper really liked the way these houses, with their [[Turret (architecture)|turret]]s and [[tower]]s and [[porch]]es and [[mansard roof]]s and ornament cast wonderful shadows. Hopper always said that his favorite thing was painting sunlight on the side of a house."<ref name="shea">{{cite web |last=Shea |first=Andrea |title=Hopper's Gloucester |url=http://www.wbur.org/2007/07/06/hoppers-gloucester/9309 |website=[[WBUR]] |date=July 6, 2007 |access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref>

At forty-one, Hopper received further recognition for his work. He continued to harbor bitterness about his career, later turning down appearances and awards.<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 16" /> With his financial stability secured by steady sales, Hopper would live a simple, stable life and continue creating art in his personal style for four more decades.

His ''Two on the Aisle'' (1927) sold for a personal record $1,500, enabling Hopper to purchase an automobile, which he used to make field trips to remote areas of New England.<ref name="Wagstaff 2004, p. 230">{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=230}}</ref> In 1929, he produced ''[[Chop Suey (painting)|Chop Suey]]'' and ''Railroad Sunset''. The following year, art patron [[Stephen Carlton Clark|Stephen Clark]] donated ''[[House by the Railroad (1925)|House by the Railroad]]'' (1925) to the [[Museum of Modern Art]], the first oil painting that it acquired for its collection.<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|p=161}}</ref> Hopper painted his last self-portrait in oil around 1930. Although Josephine posed for many of his paintings, she sat for only one formal oil portrait by her husband, ''Jo Painting'' (1936).<ref>{{harvnb|Levin|2001|p=246}}</ref>

Hopper fared better than many other artists during the [[Great Depression]]. His stature took a sharp rise in 1931 when major museums, including the [[Whitney Museum of American Art]] and the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]], paid thousands of dollars for his works. He sold 30 paintings that year, including 13 watercolors.<ref name="Wagstaff 2004, p. 230" /> The following year he participated in the first [[Whitney Biennial|Whitney Annual]], and he continued to exhibit in every annual at the museum for the rest of his life.<ref name="Wagstaff 2004, p. 230" /> In 1933, the Museum of Modern Art gave Hopper his first large-scale retrospective.<ref name="Maker 1990, p. 17">{{harvnb|Maker|1990|p=17}}</ref>

In 1930, the Hoppers rented a cottage in South Truro, on Cape Cod. They returned every summer for the rest of their lives, building a summer house there in 1934.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Allman|first1=William G.|title=New additions to the Oval Office|url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2014/02/10/new-additions-oval-office|access-date=February 11, 2016|via=[[NARA|National Archives]]|work=[[whitehouse.gov]]|date=February 10, 2014}}</ref> From there, they would take driving trips into other areas when Hopper needed to search for fresh material to paint. In the summers of 1937 and 1938, the couple spent extended sojourns on Wagon Wheels Farm in [[South Royalton, Vermont]], where Hopper painted a series of watercolors along the White River. These scenes are atypical among Hopper's mature works, as most are "pure" landscapes, devoid of architecture or human figures. ''First Branch of the White River'' (1938), now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is the best-known of Hopper's Vermont landscapes.<ref name="Clause 2012">{{harvnb|Clause|2012}}</ref>

[[File:Newyork-movie-edward-hopper-1939.jpg|thumb|''[[New York Movie]]'', 1939]]
Hopper was very productive through the 1930s and early 1940s, producing among many important works ''[[New York Movie]]'' (1939), ''Girlie Show'' (1941), ''[[Nighthawks (painting)|Nighthawks]]'' (1942), ''[[Hotel Lobby]]'' (1943), and ''Morning in a City'' (1944). During the late 1940s, however, he suffered a period of relative inactivity. He admitted: "I wish I could paint more. I get sick of reading and going to the movies."<ref name="Wagstaff 2004, p. 232">{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=232}}</ref> During the next two decades, his health faltered, and he had several prostate surgeries and other medical problems.<ref name="Wagstaff 2004, p. 232" /> But, in the 1950s and early 1960s, he created several more major works, including ''First Row Orchestra'' (1951); as well as ''Morning Sun'' and ''[[Hotel by a Railroad]]'', both in 1952; and ''[[Intermission (Hopper)|Intermission]]'' in 1963.<ref>{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=233}}</ref>

In 1966, Hopper was awarded The [[Edward MacDowell Medal]] by [[The MacDowell Colony]] for outstanding contributions to American culture.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.macdowell.org/medal-day-history|title=Macdowell Medalists|access-date=August 22, 2022}}</ref>

=== Death ===
[[File:3 Washington Square North, NYC.JPG|thumb|upright|Where Hopper lived in New York City, 3 Washington Square North]]
[[File:Grabstein Edward Hopper.JPG|thumb|Gravestone of Edward and Josephine Hopper, Oak Hill Cemetery, Nyack, N.Y.]]
Hopper died of natural causes in his studio near [[Washington Square Park|Washington Square]] in New York City on May 15, 1967. He was buried two days later in the family plot at Oak Hill Cemetery in Nyack, New York, his place of birth.<ref>{{cite web |title=Grave of Edward Hopper |url=http://www.knerger.de/html/hopperbild__kunst_17.html |website=knerger.de |language=de |access-date=April 3, 2025}}</ref> His wife died ten months later and is buried with him.

Edward Hopper's wife, Josephine, bequeathed their joint collection of over three thousand pieces to the [[Whitney Museum]].<ref>{{harvnb|Wagstaff|2004|p=235}}</ref> Arthayer Sanborn, a Baptist minister who frequently visited their home to care for Edward's sister, Marion, came into possession of three hundred Hopper drawings and paintings. Art historian Gail Levin has highlighted that whereas the Whitney Museum has extensive documentation of how Josephine distributed their couple's pieces, paintings acquired from Sanborn lack [[provenance]] proving the family willingly gifted the trove of pieces Sanborn reported finding in their attic.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Cole |first1=Alison |last2=Voon |first2=Claire |title=Edward Hopper's treasure trove of artworks was left to the Whitney—so why did some of it end up in the hands of a local reverend? |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/10/31/edward-hoppers-treasure-trove-of-artworks-was-left-to-the-whitneyso-why-did-some-of-it-end-up-in-the-hands-of-a-local-reverend |website=The Art Newspaper |date=October 31, 2022 |access-date=November 1, 2022}}</ref> The [[Museum of Modern Art]] in New York, [[Des Moines Art Center]], and [[Art Institute of Chicago]] all have significant collections of Hopper paintings.