Essay On Edward Hopper

¬Josephine Uhila

Prof. Anne Norcross

Art History: Exhibit Introduction

November 26 2013

Edward Hopper’s Scenes into Isolation

Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, New York in 1882 on the 22 of July. His family was a middle class family, whose names were Elizabeth Hopper and Garrett Hopper. His mother always encouraged art and theater and that’s exactly what Hopper did. In 1899 Hopper graduated from Nyack High School with the desire to pursue a lifetime in art. He eventually headed to New York School of Art and studied with William Merritt Chase. Chase’s influence shows later on in Hopper’s artwork, like Blond Woman Before an Easel. Hopper went through many styles and mediums while developing into a more mature artist.

Hopper traveled to Paris in 1906, where he created oil paintings of Paris and also watercolors. Hopper was considered a modernist artist: unlike European modernist who would crowd their paintings with people, Hopper’s paintings did not include dictators or wars involved in them. By Hopper doing this he showed an immense difference between his style and European modernism. It was in 1909 when he returned from another trip from Paris that he had started his mature painting style by adding light sources and shadows and eventually he got rid of the themes that no longer interest him. “Etching also allowed Hopper to suspend questions of color and to focus on light, which was of primary importance to him” (Hobbs 51). He did however learn how to etch to incorporate light better in his artwork. He follows the way early American artist use transcendentalism, but in a new way involving the city. Hopper painted and drew within many themes but the one I will focus on is the cities.

The city theme is one theme that inte...

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