Edward Hopper
American, 1882 - 1967
Edward Hopper was one of the foremost American realists of the twentieth century. In etchings, watercolors, and oil paintings, he portrayed ordinary places--drugstores, apartment houses, and small towns. Both commonplace and mysterious, these haunting images led many to praise him as the most American of painters.
Hopper's career blossomed during the 1920s, when critics were calling for a distinctly American art. By the 1930s he was hailed as one of the great American Scene painters, along with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. Hopper insisted, however, that his work was primarily an expression of his personal feelings rather than an attempt to portray a national experience.
Hopper was born in Nyack, New York. As a child he enjoyed the solitary pleasures of reading and drawing. After high school, he studied illustration and then fine arts, attending the New York School of Art from 1903 to 1906. His teachers there were Kenneth Hayes Miller, William Merritt Chase, and Robert Henri, the latter a realist painter who urged students to depict all aspects of urban life. Early in his career, Hopper had to rely on the sale of his etchings and illustrations for income. But at age forty-two, he achieved success with an exhibition of watercolors portraying New England towns and was able to devote the rest of his career to painting.
Hopper established early the style and subject matter that brought him fame. He enjoyed exploring New England by car, and his paintings of motels, gas stations, and hotel lobbies evoked the moods and places of a tourist's experience. Frequently he painted people alone or isolated from one another in introspective scenes that seemed to find modern life bleak and lonely. Sunlight also fascinated Hopper, and he used it masterfully to set mood. An avid theatergoer, he often created a suspenseful silence in his paintings, as if the curtain had just risen on a drama.
Recently I went to a large exhibition of over forty works by Edward Hopper at the Thyssan gallery in Madrid. Although it was crowded when I went with a friend it was a fantastic show. Maybe there is a little of the celebrity buzz in all of us but I do believe that the great painters are famous for a good reason and Hopper is no exception.
Hopper worked as a illustrator until he was finally able to commit himself fully to his painting in his forties and I think it shows in his masterful use of form and composition.I never realised before that he had drawn so many etchings and they reminded me of a show I had seen of Degas the French impressionist. What struck me also about this show was how cinematic it seemed, the large forms dominating a sparse and dimunitive landscape like 'house by the Railroad' reminiscant of the 1956 film 'Giant' directed by George Stevens.
The influneces of Hopper on the compositional work of Alfred Hitchcock was what struck me most of all and in particular if you ever watch 'Strangers on a train' there is a particular scene where the killer ( Rob Walker) stands below a street lamp and it is 'steet scene' by Hopper. I am not sure if he does anything other than stand below the street lamp in the movie but it is a great movie scene. I saw it years ago and I found it so captivating that I got my camera and photographed it from the television.
The excistential shoots out at you from Hoppers paintings with his De Chirico sense of uncomfortable forms and space and the figures , even if there are a few they seem to capture life and a moment of 'being' alone. There are stories in all his paintings and etchings which again probably relates to his career as an illustrator to a degree but I think maybe it was also a great deal of himself the hermetic painter trying to reason his own sense of self.
American, 1882 - 1967
Edward Hopper was one of the foremost American realists of the twentieth century. In etchings, watercolors, and oil paintings, he portrayed ordinary places--drugstores, apartment houses, and small towns. Both commonplace and mysterious, these haunting images led many to praise him as the most American of painters.
Hopper's career blossomed during the 1920s, when critics were calling for a distinctly American art. By the 1930s he was hailed as one of the great American Scene painters, along with Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton. Hopper insisted, however, that his work was primarily an expression of his personal feelings rather than an attempt to portray a national experience.
Hopper was born in Nyack, New York. As a child he enjoyed the solitary pleasures of reading and drawing. After high school, he studied illustration and then fine arts, attending the New York School of Art from 1903 to 1906. His teachers there were Kenneth Hayes Miller, William Merritt Chase, and Robert Henri, the latter a realist painter who urged students to depict all aspects of urban life. Early in his career, Hopper had to rely on the sale of his etchings and illustrations for income. But at age forty-two, he achieved success with an exhibition of watercolors portraying New England towns and was able to devote the rest of his career to painting.
Hopper established early the style and subject matter that brought him fame. He enjoyed exploring New England by car, and his paintings of motels, gas stations, and hotel lobbies evoked the moods and places of a tourist's experience. Frequently he painted people alone or isolated from one another in introspective scenes that seemed to find modern life bleak and lonely. Sunlight also fascinated Hopper, and he used it masterfully to set mood. An avid theatergoer, he often created a suspenseful silence in his paintings, as if the curtain had just risen on a drama.
Recently I went to a large exhibition of over forty works by Edward Hopper at the Thyssan gallery in Madrid. Although it was crowded when I went with a friend it was a fantastic show. Maybe there is a little of the celebrity buzz in all of us but I do believe that the great painters are famous for a good reason and Hopper is no exception.
Hopper worked as a illustrator until he was finally able to commit himself fully to his painting in his forties and I think it shows in his masterful use of form and composition.I never realised before that he had drawn so many etchings and they reminded me of a show I had seen of Degas the French impressionist. What struck me also about this show was how cinematic it seemed, the large forms dominating a sparse and dimunitive landscape like 'house by the Railroad' reminiscant of the 1956 film 'Giant' directed by George Stevens.
The influneces of Hopper on the compositional work of Alfred Hitchcock was what struck me most of all and in particular if you ever watch 'Strangers on a train' there is a particular scene where the killer ( Rob Walker) stands below a street lamp and it is 'steet scene' by Hopper. I am not sure if he does anything other than stand below the street lamp in the movie but it is a great movie scene. I saw it years ago and I found it so captivating that I got my camera and photographed it from the television.
The excistential shoots out at you from Hoppers paintings with his De Chirico sense of uncomfortable forms and space and the figures , even if there are a few they seem to capture life and a moment of 'being' alone. There are stories in all his paintings and etchings which again probably relates to his career as an illustrator to a degree but I think maybe it was also a great deal of himself the hermetic painter trying to reason his own sense of self.
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