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Edward Hopper

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Edward Hopper was an American painter and printmaker. He was born in Nyack (USA) in 1882. He is famous for his realist oil paintings and for the way he described the urban and rural atmospheres with a personal vision of modern American life. Since he was a child, Hopper showed his talent in drawing: in 1895 he painted his first work Rowboat in Rocky Cove, which demonstrated his early interest in nautical subjects. In 1900 started his studies of art at the New York School of Art where he met the protagonists of the American art such as Guy Pène du Bois, Rockwell Kent, Eugene Speicher and George Bellows. Influenced by the theories of these painters, Hopper started copying the artworks in the museums: during his student years, he painted dozens of nudes, still lifes, landscapes, and portraits, including his self-portraits.

After his studies, in 1905, Hopper landed a part-time job with an advertising agency, where he did cover designs for trade magazines. In 1906 he started travelling around Europe in Paris, London, Berlin and Brussels. In Paris Hopper spent much of his time drawing street and café scenes, and going to the theater and opera. Unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, Hopper was attracted to realist art. After returning from his trip in Europe, Hopper rented a studio in New York where he produced among many important works including New York Movie (1939), Girlie Show (1941), Nighthawks (1942), Hotel Lobby (1943), and Morning in a City (1944). In these paintings it is clearly visible his attention to geometrical design and his personal vision of modern American life.
Edward Hopper died in New York in 1967.

He has exhibited internationally in solo shows such as: "Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist" (Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, 1980); In 2004, a large selection of Hopper's paintings toured Europe, visiting Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany, and the Tate Modern in London.