Edward Hopper’s focus on lonely New Yorkers
Edward Hopper’s loneliness resonated with post-war America
Automat, 1927, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Des Moines Art Center; purchased with funds from the Edmundson Art Foundation, Inc. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Rich Sanders
Edward Hopper at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Edward Hopper painted his loneliness and discovered he was not alone.
His realistic paintings of characters alone in public places capture a dreary resignation that resonated with a prosperous post-war America.
Self-Portrait, 1925-30, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Josephine N. Hopper Bequest 70.1165. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
But America and the world would have never seen his work if not for his wife, Josephine Nivison.
Showcasing his realistic paintings of characters alone in public places is Edward Hopper’s New York at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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Hopper was born in 1882 to conservative parents. As a child, he loved nature and architecture and wanted to be an artist.
His parents supported his desire. He studied at the New York School of Art and Design and visited Paris at the same time as Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.
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He travelled to experience the art scene and to draw and paint in oil.
Queensborough Bridge, 1913, Installation view of Edward Hopper’s New York (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, October 19, 2022-March 5 2023). Photograph by Ryan Lowry
But unlike those artists, the socially shy Hopper focused on what he saw, not on making friends.
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For a time after Hopper completed his art studies in 1905, he created competent oil paintings, but he was unable to support himself as an artist. Instead, he worked as an illustrator for magazines.
Josephine Nivison
In 1920, at the age of thirty-seven, he became romantically linked with Josephine Nivison.
Edward and Jo Hopper, c. 1947, Photograph by Bernard Hoffman. The Sanborn Hopper Archive at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Frances Mulhall Achilles Library and Archives, New York EJHA.0941
At that time, Nivison was a sociable and successful watercolour artist.
Her work hung alongside works by Picasso and Man Ray in prestigious New York galleries.
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She encouraged him to paint in watercolour and arranged for the Brooklyn Museum to show Hopper’s work in a prestigious exhibition.
The Brooklyn Museum purchased one of his watercolours, and the following year, he was able to sell out a solo exhibition and quit his job as an illustrator.
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Nivison and Hopper’s professional partnership was extraordinary.
Muse for Edward Hopper
Not only did her sociability bring his art to a wider audience, but she also managed his career, documented his creative process and was his sole female muse.
For a short time before she met Hopper, she was a stage actress and so was able to transform herself into the female characters for many of his paintings.
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She also modelled nude for him.
But their marriage was not harmonious. She records in her diaries that although they were committed to each other until his death in 1967, they were also emotionally and physically detached.
Room in Brooklyn, 1932, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Hayden Collection—Charles Henry Hayden Fund. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
He privately and publicly demeaned her and was physically abusive.
The tension in their relationship began to show up in his paintings, a tension with which many could relate.
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Hopper was resigned to an emotionally dysfunctional life, and in many of his paintings, one can viscerally feel worn-out weariness, boredom and regret.
New York Movie, 1939. Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, The Museum of Modern Art; given anonymously. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy Art Resource
For instance, in New York Movie, we see an almost empty theatre and the backs of two patrons sitting separately.
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The palatable sadness and self-centredness of seeing a movie alone in a public theatre are reinforced by the attractive but dejected face of a female usher, modelled by Nivison, seemingly resigned to a life of serving these sad patrons.
Morning Sun, 1952, Oil on canvas. Edward Hopper, Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio: Museum Purchase, Howald Fund. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Similarly, in the painting Morning Sun, a melancholic feeling pervades this vulnerable scene of a woman, also modelled by Nivison, unaware she is being observed, sitting alone on a single bed in an empty room.
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Her honest and unadorned expression in this unguarded moment contrasts with our knowing she will soon be hardening her face to be presentable to the harsh city shown outside her window.
Many of Hopper’s paintings offer voyeuristic views of private moments in public spaces, such as theatres, restaurants, and offices, often captured through windows.
Room in New York, 1932, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska—Lincoln; Anna R. and Frank M. Hall Charitable Trust. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
In Room in New York, we see through a window a couple alone together.
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So too, in Automat, there is a sad yet lovely woman drinking a cup of coffee alone, too hurried to even take off her second glove.
Narratives framed by New York
She is framed by a giant but dark picture window reflecting only ceiling lights that stretch to the vanishing point, and which may be a symbol of her seemingly unending, despondent mood.
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Hopper was an avid movie fan, and like a movie, his paintings invite you to fill in the narrative gaps.
Office in a Small City, 1953, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; George A. Hearn Fund. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy Art Resource, New York
What are the circumstances of the man in Office in a Small City? Why is he looking out the window instead of working?
Why does he have that facial expression? That this is such a common experience is the reason why so many people can relate to Hopper’s paintings.
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His cinematic eye has also been an inspiration for movies. The house in the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho was modelled after his 1925 painting, The House by the Railroad, and Ridley Scott used Hopper’s most famous painting, Nighthawks, for the look and mood of his 1982 film, Blade Runner.
The Sheridan Theatre, 1937, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Newark Museum of Art, NJ; Felix Fuld Bequest Fund. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Image courtesy Art Resource
If Hopper’s paintings only captured loneliness and despair, even Nivison’s help would not have led to widespread appreciation.
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Hopper’s success can also be attributed to his ability to see beauty in the ordinary.
To most people, there is no inherent beauty in the ordinary scene depicted by Room in New York.
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Yet, from Hopper’s perspective, a window frames two sides of an enticingly lit room, where walls transform into the colours of a green meadow in summer. A door becomes a majestic tree, and two beautiful, wealthy people ignore both their surroundings and each other.
Sunlight in a Cafeteria, 1958, Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven; bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The characters seem resigned to their gilded cage existence, begging the viewer to ask: Are the characters blind to the beauty around them?
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Appreciating an Edward Hopper painting begins by looking for the beauty, trying to see how light and shadows, colour and objects, windows and buildings provide an agreeable ambience.
And then asking if you feel as ambivalent about the environment as the characters.
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They may be trapped in a gilded cage, but it is a trap of their own making.
Sunlight on Brownstones, 1956., Oil on canvas, Edward Hopper, Wichita Art Museum, KS, Roland P. Murdock Collection. © 2022 Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
One cannot passively view a Hopper painting; the tension between beauty and sadness demands a response.
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The union between Edward Hopper and Josephine Nivison was both an artistic and commercial success, yet also an emotional tragedy.
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But the tension in their relationship was the inspiration that made an ordinary painter extraordinary.
Text Martin Wray / Photos Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
