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The Penguin Modern Painters
Edward Hopper
One of America's foremost figurative painters, Hopper imbued 20th-century life with a unique vision that continues to challenge & stimulate debate. His mature work covers a range of subjects: from the rugged landscapes of Cape Cod to the impersonal architecture of New York; and from his "Hopper houses" to his celebrated portraits. And behind his luminous representations of American life lies a painful acknowledgment of the chilling isolation & essential boredom of modern life. An intriguing study of a remarkable artist, filled with a representative selection of color plates. 9" x 13".
30 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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About the author
Edward Hopper
97 books20 followersEdward Hopper was a prominent American realist painter and printmaker. While most popularly known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. In both his urban and rural scenes, his spare and finely calculated renderings reflected his personal vision of modern American life.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 28, 2017
I have had this book for many years--beautifully reproduced pictures of the works, a number of which fold out to display the paintings in a larger format. There are also studies and drawings, illustrating how Hopper assembled his big paintings. We always thinks paintings are just made as we see them, but just as few novelists simply write their books from beginning to end, but make drafts and sketches, so Hopper assembled his paintings, perhaps sketching a bit of one house here, one house there, elements of the landscapes, a figure's possible poses there, and then brought them together in a unified composition.
As is the case with the Leonard Bernstein coffee-table book I reviewed here once, The Private World of Leonard Bernstein, I often have art books for years before I actually read the text, and as in that case, the text here is incredibly informative.
As to the issue of loneliness in his pictures--what I'm getting by reading this book was that was not something that was particularly conscious with Hopper. He saw the quiet and Americanism, the unique beauty of the ordinary moment, and the more ordinary the better, often the liminal, boring moments of waiting which he saw as beautiful. He railed against the influence of other nations' work on American art, felt there was such a thing as national character, and it was important to work out of one's own national character to build a new, authentic art. American art was hugely affected by French impressionism in Hopper's era--not a bad thing, kind of a palate cleanser for a rigid and stuffy environment to my mind--but that it was important to express what was unique about the American soul or character, to the point that the sensuality of the materials, paint and brush, stroke and thickness and gloss, eventually flattened out in Hopper. He wasn't interested in paint. He was interested in conveying the emotion of the subject, and stripped away everything that distracted him from it.
The other thing that I strongly related to was how he was never satisfied with his work. As Martha Graham once described it, he had divine dissatisfaction. He always despaired that the quality he wanted to portray was always distorted by the forms and demands of the painting itself that he saw as 'intruding' on his initial vision. He wanted to paint the painting in his mind, but the actual painting always took over, and left him feeling frustrated. And so he would try again. This is the engine that fuels many, many artists and I recognized it well.
Was Hopper lonely? Or was it something he perceived in the American soul? Or perhaps we see moments of quiet and introspection as lonely because we live in an extroverted time which fails to understand the attraction? Lots of questions here.
I hadn't realized that Hopper was the student of the influential American art teacher Robert Henri, a leading figure of the Ashcan School and author of one of my most treasured books, The Art Spirit, about the making of artists.
As is the case with the Leonard Bernstein coffee-table book I reviewed here once, The Private World of Leonard Bernstein, I often have art books for years before I actually read the text, and as in that case, the text here is incredibly informative.
As to the issue of loneliness in his pictures--what I'm getting by reading this book was that was not something that was particularly conscious with Hopper. He saw the quiet and Americanism, the unique beauty of the ordinary moment, and the more ordinary the better, often the liminal, boring moments of waiting which he saw as beautiful. He railed against the influence of other nations' work on American art, felt there was such a thing as national character, and it was important to work out of one's own national character to build a new, authentic art. American art was hugely affected by French impressionism in Hopper's era--not a bad thing, kind of a palate cleanser for a rigid and stuffy environment to my mind--but that it was important to express what was unique about the American soul or character, to the point that the sensuality of the materials, paint and brush, stroke and thickness and gloss, eventually flattened out in Hopper. He wasn't interested in paint. He was interested in conveying the emotion of the subject, and stripped away everything that distracted him from it.
The other thing that I strongly related to was how he was never satisfied with his work. As Martha Graham once described it, he had divine dissatisfaction. He always despaired that the quality he wanted to portray was always distorted by the forms and demands of the painting itself that he saw as 'intruding' on his initial vision. He wanted to paint the painting in his mind, but the actual painting always took over, and left him feeling frustrated. And so he would try again. This is the engine that fuels many, many artists and I recognized it well.
Was Hopper lonely? Or was it something he perceived in the American soul? Or perhaps we see moments of quiet and introspection as lonely because we live in an extroverted time which fails to understand the attraction? Lots of questions here.
I hadn't realized that Hopper was the student of the influential American art teacher Robert Henri, a leading figure of the Ashcan School and author of one of my most treasured books, The Art Spirit, about the making of artists.
August 31, 2019
30 postcards of Edward Hopper paintings, all taken from a "major retrospective" exhibition of ~100 works held in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston back in 2007-2008. Alarming to think it was over a decade ago that I saw it! None of these are bad but they further confirm my preferance for landscape and architectural painting over portraiture. I don't think I've come across an American 20th Century realist painter to rival Hopper.
October 23, 2007
One of my all-time favorite artist monographs. I so grabbed it when the library I used to work at decided to relegate a slightly damaged copy to the book sale. I just dusted it off in anticipation of the exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, running until January 2008.
Big, bold reproductions allow greater attention to the many subtle details of Hopper's works. This is the definitive study, in my opinion, of this often misunderstood and underrated American master.
Big, bold reproductions allow greater attention to the many subtle details of Hopper's works. This is the definitive study, in my opinion, of this often misunderstood and underrated American master.
March 25, 2018
No one captured loneliness better than Hopper. Personal alienation, even in company, dimly lit hotel rooms, a lover leaving before midnight, half inhabited rooms and beach houses..the emptiness of an East Coast summer afternoon..bar flys, urban dreamers, secretaries and worn out Mad Men..and always that light..twilight or evening or Cape Cod mornings..you can nail the time to the exact minute by the shade and shadows. Beautiful tummy flipping art.
July 6, 2024
I am exceptionally fortunate to work at a university with an extensive library collection, which allowed me to check this book out. I originally found out about this book via Goodreads, so I had no idea what I was getting into when I requested this for pick-up - I just wanted to learn more about one of my favorite painters. To my surprise, this isn't a little slip-into-a-tote-bag sort of book - this is a behemoth of a coffee table book, fully as large as my torso and fantastically heavy. All the better to admire the art within! The full-color reproductions (some on fold-out pages for even more glorious detail) were fantastic, but, Hopper fanatic that I am, I even enjoyed the black-and-white reproductions at the back of the book, after Goodrich's text has concluded. There were tons of paintings that I've never seen before, including some great ones from his travels west, and lots of others that I suspect I largely hadn't heard of before because they're either in private collections or smaller museums (or, in one sad case, because the painting was destroyed in a fire during Hopper's lifetime).
November 22, 2017
light in America
Edward Hopper was a master of light, that light which is particular to the northeastern USA. He captured, in hundreds of paintings, the architecture, the land, and the moods of 20th century America. But more than just "capture", he gave viewers of his paintings the feeling of those times, those days. When I was born, he was already 61, so I only saw the tail end of that time, now lost in a new, 21st century world where light is far from important except if it comes out of a monitor of some kind. Still, as I look at his paintings, I feel a sense of loss and nostalgia every time. His greatness lies in that ability to impart a feeling. Hopper's vision has influenced everyone in America who's ever watched a movie, television, or gone to an art museum. That would include a few ! In this book, Lloyd Goodrich attempts to give a succinct account of Hopper's life, his feelings about light, form, design, country and city, and national character, among many other things. He uses Hopper's works to illustrate his points. The book is full of paintings, etchings, and sketches. While the reproductions are not as good as one would hope, this is an excellent place to begin an acquaintance with Hopper, or, if you are already familiar with the great artist, to `put it all together'. I believe that Goodrich was a personal friend and booster of Hopper from 1926 on. That would explain why Hopper's quirks and character flaws are either glossed over or left out entirely. You will have to read a biography to get the full picture. "I have come to praise him, not to bury him" would be an apt paraphrase of the matter. This book ranks as an introduction, and a good one, if somewhat light.
Edward Hopper was a master of light, that light which is particular to the northeastern USA. He captured, in hundreds of paintings, the architecture, the land, and the moods of 20th century America. But more than just "capture", he gave viewers of his paintings the feeling of those times, those days. When I was born, he was already 61, so I only saw the tail end of that time, now lost in a new, 21st century world where light is far from important except if it comes out of a monitor of some kind. Still, as I look at his paintings, I feel a sense of loss and nostalgia every time. His greatness lies in that ability to impart a feeling. Hopper's vision has influenced everyone in America who's ever watched a movie, television, or gone to an art museum. That would include a few ! In this book, Lloyd Goodrich attempts to give a succinct account of Hopper's life, his feelings about light, form, design, country and city, and national character, among many other things. He uses Hopper's works to illustrate his points. The book is full of paintings, etchings, and sketches. While the reproductions are not as good as one would hope, this is an excellent place to begin an acquaintance with Hopper, or, if you are already familiar with the great artist, to `put it all together'. I believe that Goodrich was a personal friend and booster of Hopper from 1926 on. That would explain why Hopper's quirks and character flaws are either glossed over or left out entirely. You will have to read a biography to get the full picture. "I have come to praise him, not to bury him" would be an apt paraphrase of the matter. This book ranks as an introduction, and a good one, if somewhat light.
October 19, 2024
After visiting Hopper’s childhood home in Nyack New York I wanted to learn more about him and see more of his art. This book assembled by noted art historian Lloyd Goodrich is a comprehensive collection of his oil paintings, watercolors and etchings from the 1920’s to the 60’s. The first part of this coffee table tome begins with Hopper’s early years including his studies under artist Robert Henri. Hopper did not enjoy immediate success so he spent about a decade in commercial art and illustration. Hopper’s art can be viewed as “urban landscapes” often deserted streets and buildings and coastal villages and scenes of the American Northeast. By the mid- to late 1930s Hopper became famous for his art. In addition to Hopper, other favorite artists of the period include Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and Norman Rockwell; each portrayed their own vision of life in America—in their unique styles you could say they were all “naturalistic” and “nationalistic”. Among the many great works by Hopper in this collection are the classic Nighthawks (‘42), and three from 1939, New York Movie (featuring his wife posing as a movie usher), Cape Cod Evening, and Ground Swell (looking a bit like the sea paintings of Winslow Homer).
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September 10, 2025My aim in painting has always been the most exact transcription possible of my most intimate impressions of nature…I find, in working, always the disturbing intrusion of elements not a part of my most interested vision, and the inevitable obliteration and replacement of this vision by the work itself as it proceeds.
In [modern art’s] larger and to me irrevocable sense it is the art of all time; of definite personalities that remain forever modern by the fundamental truth that is in them. It makes Molière at his greatest as new as Ibsen, or Giotto as modern as Cézanne.
My aim in painting is always, using nature as the medium, to try to project upon canvas my most intimate reaction to the subject as it appears when I like it most; when the facts are given unity by my interest and prejudices.
So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me all of the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect.
The term “life” in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it.
(Edward Hopper’s THREE STATEMENTS, 1933-1953)
In [modern art’s] larger and to me irrevocable sense it is the art of all time; of definite personalities that remain forever modern by the fundamental truth that is in them. It makes Molière at his greatest as new as Ibsen, or Giotto as modern as Cézanne.
My aim in painting is always, using nature as the medium, to try to project upon canvas my most intimate reaction to the subject as it appears when I like it most; when the facts are given unity by my interest and prejudices.
So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me all of the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect.
The term “life” in art is something not to be held in contempt, for it implies all of existence, and the province of art is to react to it and not to shun it.
(Edward Hopper’s THREE STATEMENTS, 1933-1953)
January 1, 2023
Having recently seen a show of Edward Hopper's paintings, etchings and early illustration work, I was anxious to read about his work and what inspired him. Goodrich knew Hopper so offered interesting insights into his career and his personality.
I'm hoping to read more about this giant of American art, but Goodrich's book is an excellent place to start.
I'm hoping to read more about this giant of American art, but Goodrich's book is an excellent place to start.
June 19, 2018
Wouldn’t usually recommend an art non-fiction book but Edward Hopper’s works deserve a five star review anywhere.
April 30, 2022
I love Edward Hopper's work and this book taught me a lot about him!!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews