Edward hopper biography timeline report

After graduating inHopper briefly participated in a correspondence course in illustration before enrolling at the New York School of Art and Design, where he studied with teachers such as impressionist William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri of the so-called Ashcan School, a movement that stressed realism in both form and content. Having completed his studies, in Hopper found work as an illustrator for an advertising agency.

Although he found the work creatively stifling and unfulfilling, it would be the primary means by which he would support himself while continuing to create his own art.

Edward hopper biography timeline report: Hopper was born in

He was also able to make several trips abroad — to Paris inand as well as Spain in — experiences that proved pivotal in the shaping of his personal style. Back in the United States, Hopper returned to his illustration career but also began to exhibit his own art as well. Around this time, the statuesque Hopper he stood 6'5" began making regular summer trips to New England, whose picturesque landscapes provided ample subject matter for his impressionist-influenced paintings.

Examples of this include "Squam Light" and "Road in Maine" But despite a flourishing career as an illustrator, during the s Hopper struggled to find any real interest in his own art. However, with the arrival of the new decade came a reversal of fortune. Inat age 37, Hopper was given his first one-man show, held at the Whitney Studio Club and arranged by art collector and patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

Three years later, while summering in Massachusetts, Hopper became reacquainted with Josephine Nivison, a former classmate of his who was herself a fairly successful painter. InHopper formalized his art training by undertaking a correspondence course and later on enrolling at the New York Institute of Art and Design. He considered French masters and impressionists Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas as his early influences.

Edward hopper biography timeline report: The following oral history

A professor, fellow artist Robert Henri, instilled in Hopper the courage to paint with emotion, with a statement, or with a point of view. After art education, however, Hopper found himself in the cutthroat advertising industry, churning out illustrations and cover designs for magazines. He did not like this situation which stifles his creativity and only persisted with it for the financial gain, up until the s.

He escaped this commercial milieu as often as he could, travelling to Europe, particularly in Paris. Hopper continued to struggle with his artistic vision and personal life, returning to New York and reluctantly taking up commercial illustrations again for a living. After an influential trip to Massachusetts, Hopper came up with among his first nautical-inspired realist suburban scenery, and was able to sell his first painting, Sailing Hopper moved to Greenwich Village in New York and worked on more commissioned illustrations such as movie posters.

The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm and does not concern itself alone with stimulating arrangements of color, form and design. The term life used in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it. Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature's phenomena before it can again become great.

Though Hopper claimed that he didn't consciously embed psychological meaning in his paintings, he was deeply interested in Freud and the power of the subconscious mind. He wrote in "So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect.

Although he is best known for his oil paintings, Hopper initially achieved recognition for his watercolors and he also produced some commercially successful etchings. Additionally, his notebooks contain high-quality pen and pencil sketches, which were never meant for public viewing. Hopper paid particular attention to geometrical edward hopper biography timeline report and the careful placement of human figures in proper balance with their environment.

He was a slow and methodical artist; as he wrote, "It takes a long time for an idea to strike. Then I have to think about it for a long time. I don't start painting until I have it all worked out in my mind. I'm all right when I get to the easel". He and his wife kept a detailed ledger of their works noting such items as "sad face of woman unlit", "electric light from ceiling", and "thighs cooler".

For New York MovieHopper demonstrates his thorough preparation with more than 53 sketches of the theater interior and the figure of the pensive usherette. The effective use of light and shadow to create mood is also central to Hopper's methods. Bright sunlight as an emblem of insight or revelationand the shadows it casts, also play symbolically powerful roles in Hopper paintings such as Early Sunday MorningSummertimeSeven A.

His use of light and shadow effects have been compared to the cinematography of film noir. Although a realist painter, Hopper's "soft" realism simplified shapes and details. He used saturated color to heighten contrast and create mood. Hopper derived his subject matter from two primary sources: edward hopper biography timeline report, the common features of American life gas stations, motels, restaurants, theaters, railroads, and street scenes and its inhabitants; and two, seascapes and rural landscapes.

Regarding his style, Hopper defined himself as "an amalgam of many races" and not a member of any school, particularly the " Ashcan School ". Hopper's seascapes fall into three main groups: pure landscapes of rocks, sea, and beach grass; lighthouses and farmhouses; and sailboats. Sometimes he combined these elements. Most of these paintings depict strong light and fair weather; he showed little interest in snow or rain scenes, or in seasonal color changes.

He painted the majority of the pure seascapes in the period between and on Monhegan Island. Urban architecture and cityscapes also were major subjects for Hopper. He was fascinated with the American urban scene, "our native architecture with its hideous beauty, its fantastic roofs, pseudo-gothic, French MansardColonial, mongrel or what not, with eye-searing color or delicate harmonies of faded paint, shouldering one another along interminable streets that taper off into swamps or dump heaps.

Inhe produced House by the Railroad. This classic work depicts an isolated Victorian wood mansion, partly obscured by the raised embankment of a railroad. It marked Hopper's artistic maturity. Lloyd Goodrich praised the work as "one of the most poignant and desolating pieces of realism. Although critics and viewers interpret meaning and mood in these cityscapes, Hopper insisted "I was more interested in the sunlight on the buildings and on the figures than any symbolism.

Most of Hopper's figure paintings focus on the subtle interaction of human beings with their environment—carried out with solo figures, couples, or groups. His primary emotional themes are solitude, loneliness, regret, boredom, and resignation. He expresses the emotions in various environments, including the office, in public places, in apartments, on the road, or on vacation.

Hopper's solitary figures are mostly women—dressed, semi-clad, and nude—often reading or looking out a window, or in the workplace. In the early s, Hopper painted his first such images: Girl at Sewing MachineNew York Interior another woman sewingand Moonlight Interior a nude getting into bed Automat and Hotel Roomhowever, are more representative of his mature style, emphasizing the solitude more overtly.

The spare vertical and diagonal bands of color and sharp electric shadows create a concise and intense drama in the night Combining poignant subject matter with such a powerful formal arrangement, Hopper's composition is pure enough to approach an almost abstract sensibility, yet layered with a poetic meaning for the observer. In the first, a young couple appear alienated and uncommunicative—he reading the newspaper while she idles by the piano.

The viewer takes on the role of a voyeur, as if looking with a telescope through the window of the apartment to spy on the couple's lack of intimacy. In the latter painting, an older couple with little to say to each other, are playing with their dog, whose own attention is drawn away from his masters. A middle-aged man sits dejectedly on the edge of a bed.

Beside him lies an open book and a partially clad woman. A shaft of light illuminates the floor in front of him. Jo Hopper noted in their log book, "[T]he open book is Platoreread too late". Plato's philosopher, in search of the real and the true, must turn away from this transitory realm and contemplate the eternal Forms and Ideas. The pensive man in Hopper's painting is positioned between the lure of the earthly domain, figured by the woman, and the call of the higher spiritual domain, represented by the ethereal lightfall.

The pain of thinking about this choice and its consequences, after reading Plato all night, is evident. He is paralysed by the fervent inner labour of the melancholic. In Office at Nightanother "couple" painting, Hopper creates a psychological puzzle. The painting shows a man focusing on his work papers, while nearby his attractive female secretary pulls a file.

Several studies for the painting show how Hopper experimented with the positioning of the two figures, perhaps to heighten the eroticism and the tension.

Edward hopper biography timeline report: Edward Hopper was born in

Hopper presents the viewer with the possibilities that the man is either truly uninterested in the woman's appeal or that he is working hard to ignore her. Another interesting aspect of the painting is how Hopper employs three light sources, [ 90 ] from a desk lamp, through a window and indirect light from above. Hopper went on to make several "office" pictures, but no others with a sensual undercurrent.

The best-known of Hopper's paintings, Nighthawksis one of his paintings of groups. It shows customers sitting at the counter of an all-night diner. The shapes and diagonals are carefully constructed. The viewpoint is cinematic—from the sidewalk, as if the viewer were approaching the restaurant. The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the dark night outside, enhancing the mood and subtle emotion.

The restaurant depicted was inspired by one in Greenwich Village. Both Hopper and his wife posed for the figures, and Jo Hopper gave the painting its title. The inspiration for the picture may have come from Ernest Hemingway 's short story " The Killers ", which Hopper greatly admired, [ 93 ] or from the more philosophical " A Clean, Well-Lighted Place ".

His second most recognizable painting after Nighthawks is another urban painting, Early Sunday Morning originally called Seventh Avenue Shopswhich shows an empty street scene in sharp side light, with a fire hydrant and a barber pole as stand-ins for human figures.

Edward hopper biography timeline report: Edward Hopper (July 22, –

Originally Hopper intended to put figures in the upstairs windows but left them empty to heighten the feeling of desolation. Hopper's rural New England scenes, such as Gasare no less meaningful. Gas represents "a different, equally clean, well-lighted refuge Hopper's Rooms by the Seashows an open door with a view of the ocean, without an apparent ladder or steps and no indication of a beach.

After his student years, Hopper's nudes were all women. Unlike past artists who painted the female nude to glorify the female form and to highlight female eroticism, Hopper's nudes are solitary women who are psychologically exposed. Girlie Show was inspired by Hopper's visit to a burlesque show a few days earlier. Hopper's wife, as usual, posed for him for the painting, and noted in her diary, "Ed beginning a new canvas—a burlesque queen doing a strip tease—and I posing without a stitch on in front of the stove—nothing but high heels in a lottery dance pose.

Hopper's portraits and self-portraits were relatively few after his student years. She reported later, "I guess I never met a more misanthropic, grumpy individual in my life. Though very interested in the American Civil War and Mathew Brady 's battlefield photographs, Hopper made only two historical paintings. Both depicted soldiers on their way to Gettysburg.

The best example of an action painting is Bridle Pathbut Hopper's struggle with the proper anatomy of the horses may have discouraged him from similar attempts. Hopper's final oil painting, Two Comedianspainted one year before his death, focuses on his love of the theater. Two French pantomime actors, one male and one female, both dressed in bright white costumes, take their bow in front of a darkened stage.

Jo Hopper confirmed that her husband intended the figures to suggest they are taking their life's last bows together as husband and wife. Hopper's paintings have often been seen by others as having a narrative or thematic content that the artist may not have intended. Much meaning can be added to a painting by its title, but the titles of Hopper's paintings were sometimes chosen by others, or were selected by Hopper and his wife in a way that makes it unclear whether they have any real connection with the artist's meaning.

For example, Hopper once told an interviewer that he was "fond of Early Sunday Morning That word was tacked on later by someone else. The tendency to read thematic or narrative content into Hopper's paintings, that Hopper had not intended, extended even to his wife. When Jo Hopper commented on the figure in Cape Cod Morning "It's a woman looking out to see if the weather's good enough to hang out her wash," Hopper retorted, "Did I say that?

You're making it Norman Rockwell. From my point of view she's just looking out the window. Hopper's Summer Eveninga young couple talking in the harsh light of a cottage porch, is inescapably romantic, but Hopper was hurt by one critic's suggestion that it would do for an illustration in "any woman's magazine. Why any art director would tear the picture apart.

The figures were not what interested me; it was the light streaming down, and the night all around. In focusing primarily on quiet moments, very rarely showing action, Hopper employed a form of realism adopted by another edward hopper biography timeline report American realist, Andrew Wyethbut Hopper's technique was completely different from Wyeth's hyper-detailed style.

Enrolled at New York School of Art. Works as an illustrator for C. Moves permanently to New York City. Exhibits in small shows in New York organized by Henri over the next decade. Fall : Begins painting ledger, the record of his artistic output that he will maintain for the rest of his career assisted, afterby his wife, Jo. December : Moves to top floor of 3 Washington Square North, the building that would be his studio and home for the rest of his life.

The exhibition generates no sales and little critical attention. Consigns prints for the first time to the New York art dealer Frank K. Rehn, who will represent Hopper for the rest of his career. October : Solo show at the Whitney Studio Club includes 10 watercolors and a group of prints. East Side Interior receives the Mr.