Edward Hopper - The American Realist Painter

The American realist painter of "calm, silent, stoic, luminous, classic" paintings, Edward Hopper, also a printmaker, was born in Nyack, New York on July 22, 1882 to wealthy middle class parents of Dutch ancestry. Hopper began displaying his interest and skill in drawing from age 5, greatly encouraged by his parents.

In 1900 Hopper enrolled at the Correspondence School of Illustrating. The next year he moved to the New York School of Art where he was taught by teachers including William Merritt Chase, Kenneth Hayes Miller and Robert Henri. However, it was the latter, Robert Henri, whose influence and ideas would largely determine the field of painting Hopper would turn to. Henri taught his students to "forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life."

Hopper's "Solitary Figure in a Theater" was completed in 1904. It showcased his skill in painting interiors. Some of the other important early paintings of Hopper after passing out of the New York School of Art include "Summer Interior" (1909), "Sailing" (1911), and "Road in Maine" (1914). The early years of Hopper's career, following his return from tours to Europe, were far from successful. He managed to sell "Sailing" at the 1913 Armory Show, which would be the only thing he sold till the 1920s. In 1921 and 1922 Hopper completed two of his famous oil paintings, "New York Interior" and "New York Restaurant."

Hopper's big break came in his early 40s. It was the purchase of his "The Mansard Roof" by the Brooklyn Museum for $100 in 1923, followed by his marriage in 1924 to painter Josephine Nivison whom he had known for a long time. Josephine posed for many of Hopper's paintings and was a valuable support to his career. By 1924 Frank Rehn, a prominent New York art dealer, began showing interest in Hopper's work. Solo exhibitions were organized and Hopper's reputation began to take form. His oils and watercolors were finding many takers.

Hopper's first retrospective exhibition was given by the Museum of Modern Art in 1933. It contained paintings depicting scenes from New York, Victorian houses, restaurants, bridges, and automats. His trips to Gloucester, Maine and Truro, and Cape Cod also formed subjects for his paintings.

The later years of Hopper's life were delightful with respect to the tremendous artistic recognition he received. Some of his most famous and critically studied paintings were from this period, including "Nighthawks" (1942), "Room in New York" (1932), "Cape Cod Evening" (1939), "Office at Night" (1940), "Girlie Show" (1941), "Excursion into Philosophy" (1959), "Intermission" (1963), and "Sun in an Empty Room (1963). The Whitney Museum offered a major retrospective in 1950. Hopper represented USA in the Sao Paolo Biennal in 1967, the year in which he died at the age of 84.

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