Editing Edward Hopper (section)

=== 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>