Biography: “The man’s the work. Something doesn’t come out of nothing.”

The Artist as a Young Man: 1882-1913

Edward Hopper was born in 1882 in Nyack, New York to a strict Baptist, working middle-class family. An awkwardly tall, introverted, and shy young man, in 1899 Hopper decided he wanted to be an artist, but at the urging of his family went to study commercial illustration at the New York School of Illustration and then the New York School of Art.

At the School of Art, where he studied for seven years, Hopper trained under a major figure in American Realism, Robert Henri, who taught him to carefully observe and draw inspiration from his immediate surroundings. During his student years Hopper made a few trips to Europe, and although those experiences influenced the content of some of his paintings, in terms of style Hopper remained untouched by the modernism that was sweeping the continent and continued to evolve in the realist vein.

First Success, First Failure: 1913-1924

While still working as an illustrator, Hopper launched his career as an artist and in 1913 participated in the famous Armory Show in New York City, followed by his first solo exhibition in 1920 at the Whitney Studio Club. The show didn’t result in a single sale, and Hopper resorted to selling mainly prints and watercolors.

Passion, Pain and Inspiration: 1924

In 1924, the year that he decided to devote himself to his art, Hopper married his fellow art student Jo Nivisin, a vibrant and animated actress turned painter with whom the artist maintained a fulgurous but artistically fecund relationship. Hopper was fiercely possessive and jealous of his wife, to the point of being morbidly jealous of her cat Arthur and refusing to allow her to learn to drive. Jo violently rebelled against his oppressive tendencies, and on one occasion even bit Hopper’s hand to the bone. Despite the violent disputes, Jo was an essential inspiration for Hopper, serving almost exclusively as his model after their marriage.

Critical Success: 1924-1933

In 1924, Hopper had his second solo show and his first huge success at the Rehn Galler in New York, which was a complete sell-out. As his career took off, Hopper was able to live comfortably during the Depression, although the desolation of the period surely played a role in the sadness and loneliness permeating the artist’s paintings. In 1930, Hopper’s first mature masterpiece, The House by the Railroad, entered into the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection, and the Whitney Museum acquired Early Sunday Morning. These two milestones were followed by Hopper’s first retrospective at the MoMA in 1933.

Drifting into Oblivion: 1933-1967

Sadly, with age Hopper found it more and more difficult to find inspiration for his paintings, and near the end of his life suffered from a total creative block. His virulent resistance to modernism and the advent of abstraction in America led him to be labeled as an out-of-touch conservative, and Hopper was eclipsed by the young, charismatic and provocative artists of Abstract Expressionism. Edward Hopper died in obscurity in 1967, to be followed by Jo ten months later.

Major Works: “I was painting the loneliness of a large city”

Van Gogh was an extraordinarily prolific artist, and his oeuvre cannot fairly be reduced to a handful of key works. However, amongst some of the most notable works from different points of his career are the following:

The House by the Railroad, 1925, oil on canvas, 24 x 29 in. (60.9 x 73.6 cm.)

Early Sunday Morning, 1930, oil on canvas, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. 35 x 60 in.

NightHawks, 1942, oil on canvas, Art Institute, Chicago. 30 x 56 ½ in (76 x 144 cm).

Hotel Room, 1931, oil on canvas, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. 60 x 65 inches.

Style:

Hopper’s style is notable for its stark realism, meticulous attention to detail, and a persistent interest in the effects of light and the play of light and dark (the result of his interest in the Impressionists). His works often bear witness to his past as a commercial designer, for their simple, bold design, and a palette typically reduced to a few dominant colors.

Although Hopper’s paintings are in a clearly realist mode, a closer look reveals that the artist takes some liberties in the depiction of space and perspective, subtle distortions that the viewer doesn’t necessarily notice, but which contribute to the uneasy, often haunting spirit of his paintings. The artist also tends to choose an unusual, snap-shot like or cinematic perspective, which also serves to emphasize the loneliness and sadness of the scene.