Robert Smithson
American sculptor and conceptual artist
Edward Hopper was an American realist painter famous for capturing the essence of American life and landscapes through his art. He developed his distinctive style while studying in New York, and his works, known for their emphasis on solitude, light, and shadow, have become iconic in the art world and popular culture.
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About the Edward Hopper
Edward Hopperwas an American realist painter and printmaker. He is one of America’s most renowned artists and known for his skill in capturing American life and landscapes through his art.
Born in Nyack, New York, to a middle-class family, Hopper’s early exposure to art was nurtured by his parents. He studied at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, where he developed his signature style, characterized by its emphasis on solitude, light, and shadow.
Hopper’s work, spanning oil paintings, watercolors, and etchings, predominantly explores themes of loneliness and isolation within American urban and rural settings. His most famous painting, Nighthawks (1942), epitomizes his interest in the quiet, introspective moments of everyday life. Despite a slow start, Hopper achieved significant recognition by the 1920s, with his work becoming a staple in major American museums. Hopper’s technique, marked by a composition of form and use of light to evoke mood, has been influential in the art world and popular culture. His paintings, often set in the architectural landscapes of New York or the serene environments of New England, convey a sense of narrative depth and emotional resonance, making him a pivotal figure in American Realism. Hopper created subdued drama out of commonplace subjects layered with a poetic meaning, inviting narrative interpretations. He was praised for “complete verity” in the America he portrayed.
In 1924, Hopper married Josephine Nivison, also an artist, who played a crucial role in managing his career and served as the model for many of his figures. The couple lived a modest life in New York City, with summers spent in Cape Cod, which influenced much of Hopper’s later work. Despite his success, Hopper remained a private and introspective individual, dedicated to exploring the subtleties of human experience and the American landscape. His depiction of the American scene, with its emphasis on isolation and contemplation, remains a defining aspect of his appeal and significance in the history of American art.
Frequently Asked Questions
Edward Hopper was an American realist painter and printmaker who is considered one of the most renowned artists in the United States. He is known for his skill in capturing American life and landscapes through his art.
Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, New York, to a middle-class family.
Edward Hopper’s early exposure to art was nurtured by his parents, and he later studied at the New York School of Art under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri, where he developed his signature style.
Edward Hopper’s work, spanning oil paintings, watercolors, and etchings, predominantly explores themes of loneliness and isolation within American urban and rural settings.
Edward Hopper’s most famous painting is Nighthawks (1942), which epitomizes his interest in the quiet, introspective moments of everyday life.
In 1924, Edward Hopper married Josephine Nivison, also an artist, who played a crucial role in managing his career and served as the model for many of his figures.
Despite his success, Edward Hopper remained a private and introspective individual, dedicated to exploring the subtleties of human experience and the American landscape, which is reflected in the narrative depth and emotional resonance of his paintings.
29 Quotes by Edward Hopper
- 1.
More of me comes out when I improvise.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 2.
If the technical innovations of the Impressionists led merely to a more accurate representation of nature, it was perhaps of not much value in enlarging their powers of expression.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 3.
There is a sort of elation about sunlight on the upper part of a house.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 4.
Well, I’ve always been interested in approaching a big city in a train, and I can’t exactly describe the sensations, but they’re entirely human and perhaps have nothing to do with aesthetics.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 5.
Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 6.
I think that zinc white has a property of scaling and cracking.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 7.
Well, I have a very simple method of painting.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 8.
Painting will have to deal more fully and less obliquely with life and nature’s phenomena before it can again become great.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 9.
If I had the energy, I would have done it all over the county.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 10.
If the picture needs varnishing later, I allow a restorer to do that, if there’s any restoring necessary.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 11.
I believe that the great painters with their intellect as master have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record of their emotions.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 12.
If you could say it in words there would be no reason to paint.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 13.
In its most limited sense, modern, art would seem to concern itself only with the technical innovations of the period.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 14.
I trust Winsor and Newton and I paint directly upon it.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 15.
The trend in some of the contemporary movements in art, but by no means all, seems to deny this ideal and to me appears to lead to a purely decorative conception of painting.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 16.
My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impression of nature.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 17.
In general it can be said that a nation’s art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 18.
The question of the value of nationality in art is perhaps unsolvable.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 19.
I use a retouching varnish which is made in France, Libert, and that’s all the varnish I use.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 20.
There will be, I think, an attempt to grasp again the surprise and accidents of nature and a more intimate and sympathetic study of its moods, together with a renewed wonder and humility on the part of such as are still capable of these basic reactions.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 21.
The only real influence I’ve ever had was myself.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 22.
I have tried to present my sensations in what is the most congenial and impressive form possible to me.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 23.
What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 24.
After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 25.
I find in working always the disturbing intrusion of elements not a part of my most interested vision, and the inevitable obliteration and replacement of this vision by the work itself as it proceeds.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 26.
No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 27.
I find linseed oil and white lead the most satisfactory mediums.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 28.
It’s to paint directly on the canvas without any funny business, as it were, and I use almost pure turpentine to start with, adding oil as I go along until the medium becomes pure oil. I use as little oil as I can possibly help, and that’s my method.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)
- 29.
Maybe I am not very human – what I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.
Edward HopperAmerican realist painter and printmaker (1882-1967)