Edward Hopper (1882–1967)
82 North Broadway, Nyack, NY 10960
845-358-0774
ABOUT
The paintings of Edward Hopper (1882-1967) are exhibited in museums throughout the world, but there is only one place to discover the home that formed one of America ’s most iconic artists. Located 30 miles north of New York in the most charming Hudson River town in Rockland County, Edward Hopper House Museum is the historic family home (built 1858) where America’s renowned artist was born and spent the first 26 years of his life. Visitors may explore exhibitions celebrating his legacy, early Hopper artworks, and his first studio. They can also explore the creative riverside village of Nyack that inspired Hopper’s ideas about light, color and artistic subject matter in his paintings.
SPECIAL RESOURCES
“If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.”
— Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper (1882–1967)
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.
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The artistic vision of Edward Hopper coalesced during his youth in the Hudson River village of Nyack. Here, he displayed a talent for drawing early on. Hundreds of drawings from his youth demonstrate that Hopper was already a keen observer and adroit renderer of people, places, and activities of his hometown and the world about him.
Hopper’s key Nyack years extend from the late 1880s to 1899, when he graduated from Nyack’s high school.He then began commuting from his family home to New York City to attend school for illustration then fine art with Robert Henri. He made the first of three sojourns to Europe in 1906, and in 1908 moved form home to relocated to New York City to pursue his career.
Understanding the dynamics of Hopper’s home life and family support for his talent and ambitions provide insights into what helped Hopper forge a path to becoming one of the defining American artists of the 20th century.
