43. Heritage
Influence on film
• Psycho (Hitchcock)
• Casablanca (Michael Curtiz)
• Blade runner (Ridley Scott)
• The Million Dollar Hotel (Wim Wenders)
Editor's Notes
Oil on canvass 1925-1930
Representative of American Realism
Chronicler of American civilisation
Considered to be the 1st real American artist, with solely American subjects
His birthplace in Nyack, New York
2nd child of Garret Henry Hopper and Elizabeth Griffiths Smith Hopper
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000,
now the Edward Hopper House Art Center
serves as a nonprofit community cultural center featuring exhibitions, workshops, lectures, performances, and special events
Hopper was a good student in grade school and showed talent in drawing at age five
He readily absorbed his father's intellectual tendencies and love of French and Russian cultures
He also demonstrated his mother's artistic heritage
parents encouraged his art and kept him amply supplied with materials, instructional magazines, and illustrated books
By his teens, he was working in pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor, and oil—drawing from nature as well as making political cartoons
New York:
- Illustration under Frank Vincent Dumond and Arthur Keller
painting under William Merritt Chase, Kenneth Hayes Miller and Robert Henri, mentor of the Ashcan School
modeled his style after Chase and French masters Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas
Sketching from live models proved a challenge and a shock for the conservatively raised Hopper
Robert Henri, taught life class. Henri encouraged his students to use their art to "make a stir in the world".
"It isn't the subject that counts but what you feel about it"
"Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life."
Europe: among others Paris London Brussels, Amsterdam, Berlin
In developing his self-image and individualistic philosophy of life, Hopper was influenced by the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He later said, "I admire
him greatly...I read him over and over again.“
Worked mainly for C. C. Phillips & Co. (advertising agency)
Did not consider it as part of his creative work
from 1915 on he produced some etchings
Could not make a living with painting until the age of 42
1st painting he sold
$250
Thomas F. Vietor (textile manufacturer)
61 × 74 cm
currently: Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh
x-ray screening revealed that there is an early self-portrait beyond it
Josephine Verstille Nivison
Painting: Summertime (1943)
Met in 1923
Married in 9. Juli 1924
Was painter herself, Hopper urged her to give up painting
she became the model that mostly appeared in his paintings
Responsible for his breakthrough;
Put Hopper in contact with the Brooklyn Museum of Art
Participated in an exhibition of the Brooklyn Museum of Art and sold „The Mansard Roof“ for about $100
1923: 1st solo exhibition;
Frank Rehn`s gallery – worked with him until his death
1929: sold two oil paintings, 14 watercolours and 80 drawings for altogether $6,211
Won lots of prizes
Retrospective also in Boston and Detroit
Represented the USA together with 3 other painters at the Venice Biennale
Whitney Museum ownes the worldwide biggest stock of artworks by Edward Hopper
1979: 3rd retrospective at the Whitney Museum
Afterwards parts of Hoppers complete works were shown at exhibitions in Europe
This topic could correspond to the role of the spectator that repeatedly appears in his works
- This painting is the 1st of many that deal with the status of the spectator
He will deal with this topic again and again for the rest of his life
interpretations: world is stage and we are all actors, already known from Shakespeare
new one: the fear that we had lost track on the plot of life
time stands still within the painting
can`t know what is to come
Two light sources: screen and hall
Metaphor: the film stands for life
Figure stands aside, life is passing by, while she is lost in thought
Characteristic of Hopper`s works: elaborated composition of light
His last painting
The long-awaited preformance finally takes place
Hopper and his wife Josefine take a bow
(adresses the audience as well as life itself)
Waving hills, dunes, light houses as alter ego
Lighthouses as alter ego,
represents himself as solitary person
Interpretation by Josephine Hopper
Sometimes contain technical details
Sunlit Empty streets, without any human life
Nightscenes show views into single rooms with on or two persons
leaves his paintings open for interpretation regarding relations, conversations and what comes next
Gas station from the perspective of a car driver
Dusk
Several sources of light
also documents solitude
open to interpretation (e.g. struggle between wild nature and civilisation)
One of the most popular paintings of the 20th century
Hopper`s most famous painting
although these three people sit together they dont talk to each other, are isolated
their relation towards each other is open
allegory
Women embodies health, youth, strength, connected to summer
Contrast natural/artificial light
Lighthouse Hill
Drug store
Blade runner and Casablanca influenced by Nighthawks