ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Self-Portrait 1925-30, Oil on canvas 25 1/16 x 20 3/8 in. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

In Hopper’s Self-Portrait one cannot tell whether he is sitting or standing. He is viewed from left to right, from foreground diagonally inward, and because he is wearing a hat, we assume that he is just arriving or just leaving. His eyes give us the appearance that he is looking into a mirror—perhaps the mirror or reflection of his life. His hat, in casting a shadow over his eyes, acts as sort of a mask—perhaps a mask of inner feelings.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

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Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. The Lighthouse at Two Lights, 1929, oil in canvas.

In "The Lighthouse at Two Lights" Hopper isolated the dramatic silhouette of the 120-foot-high lighthouse tower and adjoining Coast Guard station against the open expanse of blue sky. Set on a rocky promontory in Cape Elizabeth, Maine — though no water is visible in the painting — the architecture is bathed in bright sunlight offset by dark shadows.
Since 1914 Hopper had regularly summered in Maine, and this picture is one of three oils and several watercolors that he did of this site during summer 1929. To Hopper, the lighthouse at Two Lights symbolized the solitary individual stoically facing the onslaught of change in an industrial society. The integrity and clarity of his work made Hopper a quiet force in American art for forty years and one of America's most popular artists.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. The Long Leg, 1935, Oil on canvas, 40 3/16 x 60 1/8 in.

With its simplified forms modeled by a strong light, his realism was tempered by a modern sensibility. Hopper's compositions often have an air of stillness and a pervading mood of solitude. That is as true for his evocative images of sailing--a recurring theme in his work--as it is with his stark depictions of urban life. Here, the graceful movement of the boat across the water expresses Hopper's attachment to the sea and his love of sailing even as it contributes to the picture's quietude. Like many New York artists of his generation, Hopper sought relief from summer in the city by going to the New England shore. The cool tones and sense of peace in this work offer a respite from the heat and grim of New York. The locale is Stage Harbor on the southeastern coast of Cape Cod, not far from the artist's summer home in South Truro.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Sunlight in a Cafeteria, 1958 Oil on canvas, 40 3/16 x 60 1/8 in.

In Sunlight in the Cafeteria, Hopper used the restaurant setting to portray the tensions or the awkward first meeting between a man and a woman. Each person, while sensing each other’s presence, has not as yet “broken the ice.” He gazes over towards the window, holding a burning cigarette, and she lingers on, having finished her coffee. The sunlight, as it falls diagonally into the room, highlights the drama within.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Portuguese Church in Gloucester (1923), Watercolor over black chalk and pencil. 13 1/2 x 19 1/2 in.

The summer of 1923 he spent in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he began to paint watercolors regularly. One of these, Portuguese Church, shows some of his typical urban isolation but tempered by Hopper's delicate color choices, reflecting the colors of the nearby sea. There is also a sense of release; the bright sunshine and the gaily waving flag suggest a time of summer leisure.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. First Row Orchestra, (1951) Oil on canvas31 1/8 x 40 1/8 in.

Among Edward Hopper's favorite urban subjects were the theaters and movie houses of Manhattan. "First Row Orchestra" belongs to this group of richly evocative paintings. Hopper and his wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper--a painter and former actress--frequently attended movies and theater performances.
As an illustrator early in his career, Hopper had occasionally produced commercial illustrations on theatrical themes. While the performing arts had long provided subject matter for modern artists (notably Edgar Degas), Hopper most often chose to depict the audience rather than the performers.
For "First Row Orchestra" he selected an oblique vantage point, accentuating the recession of the stage and orchestra seats that seem to converge on the stylishly attired couple at the far right. The tuxedoed gentleman and his companion, wearing a fur coat, share a playbill--but the psychological distance between man and woman is at odds with the intimacy of their action. In his characteristically spare style, Hopper recast the public sphere of the theater as the setting for a private drama of modern life. Text adapted from "Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: 150 Works of Art" (1996).

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Pennsylvania Coal Town, 1947. Oil on canvas, 28 x 40".

While his watercolors were always painted on location, Hopper's mature oils were often imagined scenes based on various places. Hopper finished his canvas Pennsylvania Coal Town in his New York studio on April 23, 1947. This picture depicts the figure of a bald man raking leaves by the side of a nondescript house. The scene is the closest Hopper ever came to expressing sympathy with the masses.
Pennsylvania Coal Town brings to mind Sherwood Anderson's 1917 novel Marching Men, set in the Pennsylvania coal region in a town called Coal Creek. The novel, which Anderson dedicated "To American Workingmen," comments on the oppressiveroutine of workers' lives. Anderson described the town as "hideous ... a necessity of modern life."
Hopper's painting of the man with the rake recalls Anderson's description: 'An Italian who lived in a house on a hillside cultivated a garden. His place was the one beauty spot in the valley... When a strike came on he was told by the mine manager to go on back to work or move out of his house. He thought of the garden and of the work he had done and went back to his routine of work in the mine. While he worked the miners marched up the hill and destroyed the garden. The next day the Italian also joined the striking miners." In fact, Hopper suggests the "Italian' ethnicity of the man with the rake by including an unexpectedly elegant object at the front of the otherwise dreary house: a classical terra cotta urn on a stand, an Italianate garden ornament illuminated by the same sunlight that shines on the man's bald head.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Western Motel, 1957 oil on canvas, 30 1/4 x 50 1/8 in.

Hopper found inspiration in the commonplace of American life. In Western Motel, an anonymous motel bedroom becomes a symbol of the mobility and rootlessness of modern life. The spare furnishings, stark interior, and sharp bands of light produce a composition of masterful simplicity, yet one that is layered with psychological ambiguity. The woman's stare across the room does not seem to take us in. The pensiveness of her stare and tense posture accentuate the sense of some impending event. She appears to be waiting: the luggage is packed; the room is devoid of personal objects; the bed is made; a car is parked outside the window.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Hotel Lobby, 1943, oil on canvas 32 1/2 x 40 3/4 in. Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Three nameless guests and a desk clerk occupy the disquieting, airless space of Edward Hopper's Hotel Lobby. Urban loneliness and the banality of everyday existence are persistent themes in Hopper's paintings. The careful construction of the setting is also characteristic of the artist, who reinforced the strict geometry of his composition with the pattern of the rug and architectural elements.
The cheerlessness of the lobby is heightened by the harsh, raking light and the lack of rapport between the figures. Because of its elevated vantage point, the scene resembles a stage set. Hopper may have been inspired to paint from this point of view while he watched a play, since he frequently attended Broadway plays and preferred to view them from the balcony.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. The House by the Railroad, 1925, oil on canvas24 x 29 in.

"One of the themes of The House by the Railroad is the loneliness of travel, and the Hoppers now began to travel widely within the United States, as well as going on trips to Mexico. Their mobility was made possible by the fact that they were now sufficiently prosperous to buy a car. This became another subject of contention between the artist and his wife, since Hopper, not a good driver himself, resisted Jo's wish to learn to drive too. She did not acquire a driving licence until 1936, and even then her husband was extremely reluctant to allow her control of their automobile.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Rooms by the Sea, 1951, Oil on canvas, 29 1/4 x 40 in. (74.3 x 101.6 cm) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.

Hopper first began painting the effects of sunlight as a young art student in Paris, and this interest continued throughout his career. As a mature artist, he lived and worked in New York City and spent most of his summers on Cape Cod, Massachusetts where he designed and built a sunny, secluded studio at Truro on the bluff overlooking the ocean.
This painting is based on the view out the back door of the studio. Titled in his record book "Rooms by the Sea. Alias The Jumping Off Place," Hopper noted that the second title was perceived by some to have "malign overtones" and he thus deleted it. While the view from the studio suggested the composition of Rooms by the Sea, the image is more an evocative metaphor of silence and solitude than the transcription of an actual scene.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Gas, 1940, oil in canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

It was his famous painting of a lone gas station attendant standing beside three gas pumps in a rural gas station at dusk. The gas station is surrounded by dark woods. It is in the middle of nowhere. The attendant is the lone person in the scene. The sole light is from the old-time gas pump heads. I was suddenly aware of the radiance of these lowly gas pump heads. They were all that was between this man and darkness. In that moment I realized we must take our light wherever it comes from. These low-tech gas pumps provided all the light there was, and it was more than enough. Read more here.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Nighthawks 1942, Oil on canvas 30 x 60 in.,The Art Institute of Chicago.

This is not just an image of big-city loneliness, but of existential loneliness: the sense that we have (perhaps overwhelmingly in late adolescence) of being on our own in the human condition. When we look at that dark New York street, we would expect the fluorescent-lit cafe to be welcoming, but it is not. There is no way to enter it, no door. The extreme brightness means that the people inside are held, exposed and vulnerable. They hunch their shoulders defensively. Hopper did not actually observe them, because he used himself as a model for both the seated men, as if he perceived men in this situation as clones. He modeled the woman, as he did all of his female characters, on his wife Jo. See more here.

ART GALLERY - Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper (1882-1967), the best-known American realist of the inter-war period and one of my favourits. Early Sunday Morning, 1930, Oil on canvas35 x 60 in.Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Hopper often cropped his paintings to look like they were captured by the lens of a movie camera. The scenes that he painted are not filled with lonliness but are simply about lonely people. What makes this a masterwork is not only the climate, the color, and the light, but the inspired solitude with which it is imbued.