Night Windows, 1928, painting by Edward Hopper
I hear the sound of my own footsteps echoing on cobblestone streets; while in the distance showers of sparks drift down from elevated train tracks. The long shadows and bright city lights cast the time of day in angular slivers across every street. Anonymous and alone in a crowded city, I feel at home in the familiar surroundings of paint and canvas. As if in a dream that figure in an Edward Hopper painting is me.
He was born in Nyack, along the Hudson River in New York in 1882, but lived almost his entire adult life in Greenwich Village where he maintained a studio. He showed early promise and studied art in New York City with Robert Henri, and like many contemporaries traveled to Europe to paint, but we see no European influence in his work. Hopper is the quintessential American artist.
His American city is not just Early Sunday Morning – it is everyday stripped bare of everything except what is ordinary and honest.
Hopper’s work is the epitome of an America devoid of grand schemes and outsized egos. There are no heroes riding over the hill. True to his singular viewpoint Edward Hopper impresses us not with the color, forms, or composition, but with his understanding and expression of possibility, and more often – loss. He allows us no illusions. Victoria Gladstone
To learn more about this artist follow these leads…
RESOURCES:
– An Edward Hopper Scrapbook: http://americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/online/hopper/index.html
– Whitney Museum of American Art: http://whitney.org/Collection/EdwardHopper
-The Poetry of Solitude: A Tribute to Edward Hopper, Poems Collected and Introduced by Gail Levin. Universe Publishing. 1995.
– Staying Up Much Too Late by Gordon Theisen. Thomas Dunne Books. 2006.
– Edward Hopper Film. National Gallery of Art – Podcast.
– Edward Hopper by Henry Geldzahler. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin.
