Paris Art Studies –
Edward Hopper 1882 - 1967
1882 - Edward Hopper is born in Nyack, New York son of
Garret Henry Hopper from New Jersey owner of a dry goods store. His mother
Elizabeth Griffiths Smith is the heir of several properties, which contribute to
the family’s prosperity. An older sister Marion Louise was born in 1880.
1895 - Hopper starts drawing using ink, gouache and
watercolor. His subjects are cycling, photography, baseball, US history and
caricatures of politicians, the differences between men and women, Irish
immigrants…
1899-1900 – Graduates from Nyack High School. Undertakes art
lessons by correspondence from the New York School of Illustration, hoping for
a career as a professional illustrator.
1900 - Hopper studies at the New York School of Art (also
known as the “Chase School” run by the artist William Merritt Chase) until
1906. He studies illustration under Arthur Ignatius Keller and Frank Vincent
DuMond. Befriends the artist Clarence K. Chatterton. His classmates are George
Bellows, Patrick Henry Bruce, Guy Pène du Bois, Walter Pach.
1901 – Switches from illustration to the study of the fine
arts. He studies color in parallel to drawing in a non-academic mode from the
live model.
1902 – His new professor, Robert Henri (who had studied in
Philadelphia and Europe) will have a great influence on him. He turns away from
the study of still life to that of the portrait and self portrait.
1903 – Receives first prize for life drawing. Executes a
series of illustrations in ink of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe.
1904 - While pursuing his studies
named teacher
of painting, drawing and print making at the New York School of Art.
1905 – Hired as illustrator by C.C. Phillips and Company a
New York advertising agency.
1906 – Visits Paris for the first
time where he discovers Impressionism. He most particularly studies the works of
Pissarro, Renoir
and Sisley. Lives at the Evangelical church on rue de Lille. Frequents Patrick
Henry Bruce.
1907 – Travels to London, Holland and Brussels before
returning to New York.
1908 – In New York works as commercial
artist and paints on his free time. Following the principles of Robert Henri he
switches to typically modern American subjects: trains, boats, bars and
theaters. Exhibits his paintings for the first time at the Old harmonic Club
with Bellows and Pène du Bois among others.
1909 – Second visit to Paris from March to August, where he
stays in the Latin quarter. He frequents the American artists Patrick Henry
Bruce, Oliver N. Chaffee and Walter Pach. He paints outdoors notably on the
quays of the Seine.
1910 –
Travels to Paris and Spain.
1912 –
Exhibits at the McDowell Club in New York and paints in Gloucester,
Massachusetts in the summer.
1913 – Hopper’s
first sale : Sailing. Beginning of an account book he will hold all his
life. Death of is father in Nyack. Hopper moves to Greenwich Village where he
will live and work for the rest of his life.
1914
– Meets a young teacher, Josephine Verstille Nivison in a boarding house
in Ogunquit, Maine in the summer, though their friendship only develops later.
1915 – Begins making
prints until 1923. His major painting of this period, Soir Bleu inspired by a Rimbaud poem is
ignored by critics. He gradually abandons French subjects.
1916 – Begins
spending his summers in Maine, on Mohegan Island.
1917 - Hopper studies
prints in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He admires most
particularly the work of Goya and Charles Méryon a 19c French engraver of
cityscapes.
1920 – First solo
show at the Whitney Studio Club, where he exhibits 16 paintings, 11 from his
Paris stay. Nothing sells and Hopper remains dependent for his livelihood on
his illustration work. His prints are more successful and mentioned in the
press.
1923 – Puts a stop
to printmaking (he will briefly return to the medium in 1928 when he makes a
drypoint of Jo) and takes up watercolor. The Brooklyn Museum purchases The Mansard Roof for $ 100.
1924 – Hopper marries Josephine Verstille Nivison in an Evangelical church
on West Sixteenth Street. Guy Pène du Bois is his best man. Spends summer in
Gloucester.
1925 – The print Night
Shadows (1921) is bought by the British Museum in London. The Metropolitan
Museum of Art buys 15 prints. Thanks to these and other sales Hopper can give
up commercial illustration. Paints House by the Railroad, often claimed
as his first mature work (it will later inspire the house in Hitchcock’s
“Psycho”). Visits the West, New Mexico and Colorado in the summer.
1926 – One of his
most prolific years (he will paint 100 paintings between 1924 and 1966).
1927 – Buys his
first car. Summer in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
1928 – Paints From Williamsburg Bridge and Manhattan
Bridge Loop.
1929 – Solo show at
Rhen gallery.
1930 – The collector
Stephen C. Clark donates House by the Railroad (1925) to the Museum of
Modern Art of New York, making Hopper the first artist of the permanent collection
of the new museum. He paints Early Sunday Morning, originally titled Seventh
Avenue Shops. Early Sunday Morning is purchased by Juliana Force for
the new Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. Hopper finishes his self
portrait begun in 1925.
1931 - Paints Hotel
Room, in which a lonely figure on a bed reads a train time table. Guy Pène
du Bois writes a monograph on his work. Summers in South Truro, Mass.
1932 – Exhibits in
his firs Whitney biennial (will do so in virtually every annual and biennial
until his death).
1933 – Jo begins her
private journal in which she writes about her life with Hopper and his creative
process. First retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Hopper is
the 3rd American artist to be shown artist after Max Weber and
Maurice Sterne.
1934 – Retrospective at the Arts Club in Chicago. Finishes
building house in South Truro in which he will vacation for the rest of his
life.
1935 - Hopper paints
House at Dusk. He receives the Temple Gold Medal from the Pennsylvania
Academy of Fine Arts.
1939 – In the summer
he paints Cape Cod Evening et Ground Swell. This and other works
seem to announce the impending war and doom in Europe.
1940 - Hopper reads
the French critic and writer Paul Valéry. He paints Office at Night,
inspired by views from his night journeys on the subway.
1941 – Summer drive
to the Pacific and back via the Rockies.
1942 - A restaurant on
Greenwich Avenue, Vincent Van Gogh’s “Night Café”, the gangster movies of the
1930’s as well as Hemingway’s 1927 tale, “The Killers”, inspire his celebrated
painting Nighthawks.
1943 - Hopper paints
Hotel Lobby and Summertime. The Museum of Modern Art buys Gas.
Visits Mexico.
1945 – Elected
member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
1949 - Hopper paints
a Broadway apartment scene reminiscent of Hollywood gangster movies, Conference
at Night. The collector Stephen Clark who initially bought the painting at
the Rehn Gallery, returns it suspecting it represents a Communist plot.
1950 – Retrospective
at the Whitney Museum of American Art organized by Lloyd Goodrich. Hospitalized
Hopper cannot attend the opening. The show moves to the Museum of Fine Arts of
Boston and Detroit.
1951 – New visit to
Mexico.
1952 – One of 4
American artists sent to the Venice Biennale.
1955 – Receives gold
medal of the National Institute of Arts and Letters for his work.
1960 – Show at
Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, Conn.
1962 - Hopper paints
New York Office.
1963 – He paints Sun
in an Empty Room.
1964 – Major retrospective at Whitney Museum of American Art moves on to Chicago.
1965 - Hopper paints
his last painting Two Comedians. Retrospective
exhibitions in Detroit and St Louis.
1966 - Edward and Jo
Hopper are both hospitalized for long periods.
1967 - 15 May:
Hopper dies at the age of 84 in his studio on Washington Square in Greenwich
Village.
1970 – His heirs bequeath a great number of his works, archives and sketchbooks
to the Whitney
Museum of American Art.