Edward Hopper is an American artist who perfectly mastered the art of uncompromisingly conveying the most diverse aspects of life, endowing them with deep emotional content. Often filled with motionless, anonymous figures and compositions set against the backdrop of popular New York City public spaces from the 1920s and 1940s, his paintings invariably evoke a sense of loneliness.
Biography
Edward Hopper was born in the town of Nyack (on the banks of the Hudson) on July 22, 1882, to Henry Hopper and Elizabeth Griffiths Smith. He had an older sister named Marion. Edward's middle-class family has always supported the intellectual and artistic pursuits of children. By the age of five, one could speak of the boy's extraordinary abilities, which he continued to develop in primary and secondary school. Among his earliest works is an oil painting from 1895, which depicts a rowing boat. But the visual arts did not immediately become the work of Edward Hopper's life. For a long time he dreamed of a career as a naval architect.
After graduating from high school in 1899, Hopper enrolled in illustration courses. And already in 1890 he continued his studies at the School of Art and Design in New York. Among others, his teachers here were the impressionists William Merritt Chase and Robert Henry of the so-called "Ashkan School" - a movement that was famous for "fixing" realism in both form and content.
Career
After graduating in 1905, Hopper got a job as an illustrator at an advertising agency. Despite the fact that the work seemed to him creatively suffocating and impracticable, it was his main source of income. He could well support himself and continue to create in his own style. In addition, Hopper has made several overseas trips. In 1906, 1909 and 1910, Edward traveled to Paris, and also to Spain in 1910. It was during his travels that he managed to gain experience, which turned out to be key in shaping his personal style. Despite the growing popularity in Europe of such abstract movements as Cubism and Fauvism, Hopper was most attracted by the work of the Impressionists, especially Claude Monet and Edouard Manet. During this period, he created the paintings "Bridge in Paris" (1906), "Louvre and the pier for boats" (1907) and "Summer interior" (1909).
Returning to the United States, Hopper quit his job as an illustrator. He began exhibiting his own work, becoming a participant in the Exhibition of Independent Artists in 1910. And in 1913, at the International Arms Exhibition, his first painting "Sailing" (1911) was sold, exhibited next to the works of Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas and many others. In the same year, Hopper moved to an apartment in Washington Square in Greenwich Village, New York, where he will spend most of his personal and creative life.
In 1920, at the age of 37, Hopper was given the opportunity to organize his personal exhibition. It was held at the Whitney Studio Club with the participation of art collector and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. First of all, Hopper's paintings about Paris were presented here.
In the second half of his life, the artist worked side by side with his wife Josephine in the studio in Washington Square or during their frequent trips to New England. His work from this period often points to their location, be it the tranquil image of the Cape Elizabeth lighthouse in his Two-World Lighthouse (1929), or the lonely woman seated in Automaton (1927), which he first presented at his second exhibition in Rene. There he sold so many paintings that for some time he could not exhibit until he created a sufficient number of new works.
Another notable work by Hopper is a 1925 painting that depicts a Victorian mansion next to a railroad track called "The House by the Railroad."In 1930, she made the first acquisition of the newly created Museum of Modern Art in New York. Three years later, a personal retrospective of Hopper was presented here. But despite this overwhelming success, some of Hopper's best work was yet to come. In 1939, he completed The New York Film, which shows a young woman ticket collector standing alone in a theater lobby. In January 1942, his most famous work, "Night owls," was unveiled, depicting three customers and a waiter in a brightly lit diner on a quiet empty street. Almost immediately it was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is exhibited to this day.
Hopper's popularity declined in the mid-20th century, when abstract expressionism gained widespread popularity. Despite this, he continued to create quality work and receive critical acclaim.
In 1923, while vacationing during a summer vacation in Massachusetts, Hopper met Josephine Verstyle Nivison, his former classmate and a rather successful artist. Young people almost immediately became inseparable and got married in 1924. Working together often, they influenced each other's style. Josephine jealously insisted that she be the only model for any paintings by the artist that required the participation of women. Since then, his wife has been featured in most of Hopper's work.
Edward Hopper died on May 15, 1967 at his home in Washington Square, New York. He was 84 years old. The artist was buried in his hometown of Nyack. Josephine died less than a year later and bequeathed her work to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
