Edward Hopper - Gas (1940)
Edward Hopper was raised in Nyack, New York, a small town nesteld on the banks of the Hudson river. His mother Elizabeth noticed the youngster’s flair for drawing and painting, and she encouraged him to develop his talent. When Edward announced his intention to attend college, his parents, who had traditional middle-class values, suggested he studied commerical art rather than fine art, to ensure he would be able to provide a living for himself.
Following high school, he signed up at the School of Illustrating of New York City. Although the college offered mainly correspondence courses, Edward Hopper attended in person, commuting to the school by train from his home town. After a year he transferred to the New York school of Art, where he studied with Robert Henri, one of the leading exponents of the Ash Can school of painters. One of Hopper’s fellow students was the destined-for-fame George Bellows. Hopper stayed at the school for over 6 years, supporting himself through teaching and occasional illustration work.
In 1906, at the age of 24, Hopper made a visit to Europe. He spent most of the time in Paris, finding out first hand about the new style sweeping the continent – Impressionism. Over the following 3 years Hopper made two more trips to Europe’s capital of art. The artist was later to state that ‘America seemed awfully crude and raw when I got back. It took me ten years to get over Europe’.
In 1911, Hopper moved into a modest apartment in the middle of Greenwich Village, taking on an illustrating job at a local printers. In 1913, Hopper exhibited at the fabled Armory show, selling just 1 painting. It was not until 1923, a full 10 years later that he was to sell his second, a small watercolor entitled The Mansard Roof. The following year his work was featured by a New York gallery, and every painting sold. Hopper had become popular with the art world at the age of 42.
1923 Hotel Management - Illus by Hopper
1923 was also the year Hopper met Jo Nivison, another artist. The two subsequently married. Jo modeled for many of Hopper’s paintings, and has become a familiar face to lovers of Hopper’s art.
In 1929, several of Hopper’s paintings were accepted for a much-feted exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The following year, one of his paintings (The House By The Railroad) was purchased by the MMA for its permanent collection.
After WWII, Hopper fell from the attention of the art public, as Abstract Expression became the vogue. Hopper died in 1967. His estate made a large bequest of paintings to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Best Artists’s (from 100BestEverything) rating (out of 5 stars) 3-creativity, 4-composition, 4-execution.
Tags: art, art-aesthetics, art-blogs, art-life, art-matters, art-museum, art-reviews, art-work, art-world, artiste, artists, artists-life, edward-hopper, fine-art, hopper-edward, life-of-an-artist, oil-paintings, painting-blog, painting-fine-art
