#American realism

[lionofchaeronea]

Summer Evening, Edward Hopper, 1947

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Edward Hopper, Sunlight in a Cafeteria, 1958. Oil on canvas,

Photo: Whitney Museum of American Art

[russiansappho]

Carol (2015) x Edward Hopper paintings

[thepaintedroom]

Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967) • Two on the Isle • 1927 • Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.

[engelart]

“The road to Brookville”, by Norman Engel

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

The Morse Dry Dock Dial, 1921

New York Movie, 1939

Houses of Squam Light, 1923

Interior, 1925

Self Portrait, 1904

Cape Ann Granite, 1928

Night Windows, 1928

Jo Painting, 1936

Nighthawks, 1942

Cape Cod Morning, 1950

July 22nd marks the birthday of American realist painter and printmaker Edward Hopper (1882-1967). Born in Nyack, New York, Hopper took to art at a young age exploring shadows and shapes through charcoal drawings. By age ten, he started to sign and date his work and, with his parents' encouragement, spent his teen years delving into watercolor and oil painting. Declaring his professional interest in art, Hopper attended the New York School of Art and went on to become a renowned figure in American Realism.  

Like many before him, Hopper started his career in commercial illustration to pay the bills but by the late twenties he was supporting himself through showing and selling his paintings. Hopper’s work explores architectural American environments and intimate rural scenes through a lens of solitude. The dramatic moods of his paintings are created through his expertise in capturing light and shadow to convey the subtilties of human experience.  

In celebration of the day, we’re sharing Edward Hopper: a catalogue raisonné published in 1995 by Whitney Museum of American Art and edited by art historian Gail Levin (b. 1948). The three-volume catalog is a definitive work on Hopper featuring essays on the artist and hundreds of plates encompassing the entire scope of his career. Scholars will delight at the publication’s inclusion of bibliographic details including provenance and exhibition histories attributed to most pieces.  

Read other Milestone Monday posts here.

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[eirene]

Blackboard, 1877 Winslow Homer

[pawswithprose]

House by the Railroad, Edward Hopper

(1925)

[galleryofart]

Love of Winter

Artist: George Wesley Bellows (American, 1882–1925) Realism

Date: 1914

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Description

In January 1914 George Bellows wrote to a friend, “There has been none of my favorite snow. I must always paint the snow at least once a year.” Soon after, on February 13, a major blizzard hit New York City, inspiring the artist to paint Love of Winter. He used bright reds, yellows, and greens to intensify the winter scene and broad, slashing brushstrokes to convey movement, wind, and speed. The energetic group of skaters and onlookers, composed of people of a range of ages and social classes, reflects the diverse populations who enjoyed the public parks and the leisure activities they offered in early 20th-century New York City.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Edward Hopper, Hotel Room, 1931

Edward Hopper, Summer Interior, 1909

[theaskew]

Slim Aarons (American, 1916-2006), Christmas Swim, 1954: Rita Aarons swimming in a pool festooned with floating baubles and a decorated Christmas tree, Hollywood, California, 1954. C-Print, 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm) (Source: Staley-Wise Gallery, New York)

[lionofchaeronea]

Soir Bleu, Edward Hopper, 1914

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Edward Hopper, Skyline Near Washington Square, 1925. Watercolor and graphite on paper,

"Skyline Near Washington Square portrays an austere Manhattan rooftop behind which rises a single gaunt narrow building that dominates the sky. When first shown, this work bore the title Self-Portrait, an ironical and self-referential joke in the form of a visual pun on Hopper's own great height, which had long been an object of caricature and comment by himself and his friends. The original title, which also appears in the artist's record books, must have puzzled any viewer unfamiliar with Hopper's lanky figure. For this watercolor Hopper's wife Jo noted in the record books she kept of his work as it left the studio. 'Self-Portrait. Roof & top of higher house sticking up behind. Skyline near Wash. Sq.' By the time he sold the work in 1927 he had renamed it, concealing the self-reference with the purely descriptive title."

--Gail Levin

Photo: Whitney Museum of American Art

[canvasmirror]

Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967) • Self-Portrait • 1903-06

[thepaintedroom]

Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967) • New York Movie • 1939 • Museum of Modern Art, New York City

[engelart]

“vintage bottles”, 2023 by Norman Engel