#art, The Curious Life of Edward Hopper…

Photo: Oscar White/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images/Image source: Biography)

You would think that the painter of «silence» was a subdued, quiet and laid-back sort of chap, but he wasn’t…

He was born in Nyack, New York in 1882 in a well off upper middle class family. From the age of 5 he was taught to pursue artistic paths. When he decided he wanted to be an artist he was placed in the New York School of Art and Design. He graduated in 1905 and started to work as an illustrator for an advertising agency. He went to Europe, first to Paris, several times in 1906, 1909 and 1910. In 1910 he also visited Spain.

Although Paris in those years was filled with innovative, creative and experimental artists, such as Picasso, Braque, Matisse and others, Hopper did not seem the least bit interested. He shunned the art vanguards of the 20th Century, such as abstract art, fauvism and cubism, that were being developed and in vogue. Instead he was most impressed and interested in the works of the impressionists, especially Claude Monet and Edouard Manet. He learned well from their use of light.

In 1910, having returned to the United States, Hopper began exhibiting his works. At this time he moved to an apartment in Washington Square where he lived and worked most of his life. He married Josephine Nivison in 1924. She was rather a successful painter and often worked together. But their life was no pleasure cruise. Both were dominating and jealous people. Josephine demanded that she be the only female model for any future paintings featuring women. And he also tried to control her. And with her being the successful artist, that made things quite interesting.

In any event it is quite well known that their marriage was totally dysfunctional. Yet, thanks to Josephine, Hopper’s art career began to bloom and finally take off. Her art connections led to Hopper having a one-man exhibition at the Rehn Gallery. There he sold all his watercolours. From time time on Hopper’s association with the Rehn Gallery became life-long.

Edward Hopper is one of the best known US artists. His work was a profound study of American life in the which he emphasised its isolation and contemplation. He is, most certainly, a very important artist in the history of art. Hopper died of natural causes in his studio on the 15th of May 1967 in his Washington Square Park studio in Manhattan.

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