Edward Hopper

by Taschen (Creator)

Edward Hopper is considered the first significant American painter in twentieth-century art. After decades of patient work, Hopper enjoyed a success and popularity that since the 1950s have continually grown.

Living in a secluded country house with his wife Josephine, he depicted the loneliness of big-city people in canvas after canvas. Many of Hopper's pictures represent views of streets and roads, rooftops, abandoned houses, depicted in brilliant light that strangely belies the melancholy mood of the scenes. On the other hand, Hopper's renderings of rocky landscapes in warm brown hues, or his depictions of the sea coast, exude an unusual tranquillity that reveals another, more optimistic side of his character.

Hopper's paintings are marked by striking juxtapositions of colour, and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings. His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in both the natural and the man-made environment sometimes lends his pictures a mood of eerie disquiet.

The Edward Hopper portfolio features high quality prints that beg to be framed. Tucked in the portfolio are 14 large-format reproductions, each with a brief description.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2003

About the author

'Taschen is an art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. It began as Taschen Comics publishing Benedikt's extensive comic collection. Taschen has been a noteworthy force in making lesser-seen art available to mainstream bookstores, including some fetishistic imagery, queer art, historical erotica, pornography and adult magazines (including multiple books with Playboy magazine). Taschen has helped bring this art into broader public view, by publishing these potentially controversial volumes alongside its more mainstream books of comics reprints, art photography, painting, design, fashion, advertising history, film, and architecture.' - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Edward Hopper is one of my favourite American artists as his atmospheric paintings of buildings, street scenes, abandoned houses and voyeuristic views often portray a melancholy or mysterious feel but still have that vibrant look that leaves the viewer wondering what exactly is happening.

Even the first offering in the book, 'Lighthouse Hill', while a seemingly peaceful scene of the lighthouse and its associated living quarters, and all beautifully depicted, has a mysterious air about it as though it is the habitation of someone like Norman Bates of Psycho fame! It is a painting that can be looked at time and again with those sort of feelings!

It is quite different from his 'Ground Swell' that has an air of impressionist light about it as four youngsters in a yacht look to tending to a buoy; it has action but peaceful and relatively calm action! But there is little action in 'New York Office' in which a secretary is seen through a large plate glass window (one of Hopper's recurring themes looking in through windows) with a dingy alleyway next door. However, the secretary has the look on her face as she reads the missive in her hand that it is bringing bad news, such as someone is stalking you out there so watch out.

'Nighthawks' and 'Chop Suey' both have that characteristic of looking in through a window while 'Morning Sun' and 'South Carolina Morning' both have young ladies looking out assessing the day ahead as Hopper addresses one of his favourite themes, the relationship between the interior and the exterior world.

It is unusual for Hopper to paint people talking but in 'Conference at Night' the two gents and a lady are discussing something in a shadowy room but even that gives me the impression of being the baddies in the Bulldog Drummond novel I have just read planning their next move! But ending on a pleasant note, 'Summertime' shows a young lady in summer dress on the steps of a building simply impassively surveying the scene. Of this painting Hopper said, 'Maybe I am not very human. What I wanted to do was to paint sunlight on the side of a house.' And, in fairness, if that is so, he achieves his objective as the young lady's shadow stretches up the steps behind her.

Hopper's paintings are always excellent compositions and are tremendously pleasing on the eye and there is always something to ponder over.

30 December 2024
In the process of cataloguing my art book collection I spotted this Edward Hopper portfolio on the shelves and could not resist sitting down with a cup of coffee and browsing the 16 prints therein.

Hopper is undoubtedly one of my favourite modern American painters and his work always intrigues me for, particularly when he is looking in on something, there is an air of mystery about them as one wonders what is going through the mind of the person(s) featured. Indeed, it is very rare that he features people speaking in his work with 'Conference at Night' featured in this collection being one such painting. Even that has some mystery about it as there is no indication by the actions or features of the people concerned as to what is going on and the ambience is bereft of any detail, as is often Hopper's wont, so as to give any clue. Indeed many of his studies could come right out of a 1940s' film noir.

The 1943 'Summertime' is particularly attractive as a young lady, with the sun shining through her dress stands forlorn on the steps of a building but there are no people in his 'Lighthouse Hill' and, without any sign of the sea, once again it appears a mysterious setting.

I do enjoy examining Hopper's paintings and the hour or so doing so was well spent.

[Ly Casnocha · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one of American significant painters, Hopper left impression for his series of paintings where he depicted the urban solitude of the civilians and dwellers. Notable for his sense of melancholy in the midst of American citiescapes and countrysides, I got impressed by Hopper's crafts of disquietude and abstract sense of bizarrity. I could sense his message of the contemporary solitude existing in the American society. Overall, Hopper impressed me through his memorable series of unique paintings.

[Yujia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Getting ready for my trip to NYC! Looking forward to the exhibition at Whitney.

[Bert Huisman]

10

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book. I know I shouldn’t have but I did tear on a few pages out and frame them ooops

[Luke Tyler]

This introduced me to “Automat” which is fire