b. 1882 d. 1967
Site Affiliation: Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center
Edward Hopper was a keen observer of the everyday, which he transformed through his imagination into works of art that bear his signature tense, enigmatic atmospheres. A reflective and individualistic man, he was deeply attuned to the relationship of the self to the world, and his works increasingly focused on the psychological realities of his subjects. He established his career and reputation as a chronicler of the modern urban experience. Hopper was frequently inspired by two locations: downtown New York, where he lived and worked in the same apartment on Washington Square from 1913 until his death in 1967; and Cape Cod, where, beginning in 1934, he and his artist wife Josephine (Jo) Nivison maintained a second home and studio. The home in Nyack, where he lived until 1908, remained the Hopper family’s primary home until the death of his sister Marion in 1965.
Primary Medium: Painting, Etching
Primary Stylistic Term: American Realism
HAHS Affiliations: Hopper and Rockwell Kent were both students of Robert Henri.
Fun Fact: Edward Hopper displayed a talent for drawing early on, and by the age of ten began signing, and sometimes even dating, his work.
Recommended Publications: American Master’s Hopper: An American Love Story (PBS, 2024); Edward Hopper’s New York (Whitney Museum, 2022); Prelude: The World Surrounding Him: Edward Hopper and Nyack by Avis Berman (Edward Hopper House Art Center; 2011); Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography by Gail Levin (1995)