Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: The Making of the Artist

and His Art

Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks"
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Im Shirley Griffith.
DOUG JOHNSON: And Im Doug Johnson with PEOPLE IN AMERICA
in VOA Special English. Today we tell about artist Edward Hopper. He
painted normal objects and people in interesting and mysterious ways.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In June of two thousand-six, visitors entered the
redesigned Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., for
the first time. When these people walked into the building, they saw two
simple, colorful paintings. These paintings showed normal scenes from
American life. But they looked mysterious and beautiful. American artist
Edward Hopper painted both of these famous pictures.
DOUG JOHNSON: Edward Hopper was born in eighteen eighty-two in
Nyack, a small town in New York State. From a young age, Edward knew
he wanted to be a painter.
His parents were not wealthy people. They thought Edward should learn to
paint and make prints to advertise for businesses. This kind of painting is
called commercial art. Edward listened to his mother and father. In
nineteen hundred, he moved to New York City to study commercial art.
However, he also studied more serious and artistic kinds of painting.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: One of Hoppers teachers was Robert Henri, a
famous American painter in the early twentieth century. Henri was a leader
of a group of artists who called themselves the Ashcan School painters. The
Ashcan artists liked to paint normal people and objects in realistic ways.
Henri once expressed his ideas about painting this way: Paint what you
feel. Paint what you see. Paint what is real to you.
Edward Hopper agreed with many of these ideas about art. He told people
that Henri was his most important teacher.
DOUG JOHNSON: Hopper studied with Henri in New York City for six
years. During those years, Hopper dreamed of going to Europe. Many
painters there were making pictures in ways no one had ever seen before.
Many of them had begun to paint pictures they called abstract. The artists
liked to say these works were about ideas rather than things that existed in
the real world. Their paintings did not try to show people and objects that
looked like the ones in real life. Most American artists spent time in
Europe. Then they returned to the United States to paint in this new way.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: With help from his parents, Hopper finally traveled
to Europe in nineteen-o-six. He lived in Paris, France, for several months.
He returned again in nineteen nine and nineteen ten.
Unlike many other people, however, Hopper was not strongly influenced
by the new, abstract styles he found there. Paris had no great or immediate
impact on me, he once said. At the end of these travels, he decided that he
liked the realistic methods he had learned from Robert Henri.
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: When Edward Hopper returned from Paris for the last
time, he moved into a small apartment in the Greenwich Village area of
New York City. He took a job making prints and paintings for businesses.
However, the paintings he made outside of his job were not helping him
earn money or recognition. He had a show of his work at a gallery in New
York. However, most people were not interested in his simple, realistic
style. Very few people bought his paintings.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Things began to improve in nineteen twenty-three.
He began a love relationship with an artist named Jo Nivison. Soon they
married. His wife sometimes said that Edward tried to control her thoughts
and actions too much. However, most people who knew them said they
loved each other very much. They stayed married for the rest of their lives.
Also, Jo was the model for all of the women in Hoppers paintings.


A museum visitor stands in front of the painting "Cape Cod Morning"
Success in art soon followed this success in love. In nineteen twenty-four,
Hopper had the second show of his paintings. This time, he sold many
pictures. Finally, at age forty-three, he had enough money to quit his job
painting for businesses. He could now paint what he loved. Edward and Jo
bought a car and began to travel around the country to find interesting
subjects to paint.
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: Most people say that Hoppers nineteen twenty-five
painting The House by the Railroad was his first mature painting. This
means that it was the first painting that brought together all of his important
techniques and ideas.
The House by the Railroad shows a large, white house. The painting does
not show the bottom of the house. It is blocked by railroad tracks. Cutting
scenes off in surprising ways was an important part of Hoppers style. He
became famous for paintings that are mysterious, that look incomplete or
that leave viewers with questions.
Shadows make many parts of the home in The House by the Railroad
look dark. Some of the windows look like they are open, which makes the
viewer wonder what is inside the house. However, only dark, empty space
can be seen through the windows. Strange shadows, dark spaces, and areas
with light were important parts of many Hopper paintings.
There are no people in the painting, and no evidence of other houses
nearby. Hopper was famous for showing loneliness in his art. People often
said that, even when there were many people in his paintings, each person
seems to be alone in his or her own world.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: During the great economic depression of the
nineteen thirties, many people saw Hoppers lonely, mysterious paintings
of everyday subjects. They liked the pictures because they seemed to show
life honestly, without trying to make it happier or prettier than it really was.
As a result, Hopper continued to sell many paintings during those years,
even though most Americans were very poor.
DOUG JOHNSON: In nineteen forty-two, Hopper painted his most famous
work, Nighthawks. The painting shows four people in an eating-place
called a diner late at night. They look sad, tired, and lonely. Two of them
look like they are in a love relationship. But they do not appear to be
talking to each other. The dark night that surrounds them is mysterious and
tense. There is no door in the painting, which makes the subjects seem like
they might be trapped.
Hopper painted Nighthawks soon after the Japanese bomb attack against
the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Many people thought the
painting showed the fear and unhappiness that most Americans were
feeling after the attack. The painting became very famous. Today, most
Americans still recognize it. The painting now hangs in a famous museum
in Chicago, Illinois.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Nighthawks was not Edward Hoppers only great
success. In nineteen fifty, he finished a painting called Cape Cod
Morning. It shows a brightly colored house in the country. In the middle
of the painting, a woman leans on a table and looks out a window. She
looks very sad. However, nothing in the painting gives any idea about why
she would be sad. Today this painting hangs in a special place in the
Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington. It is one the paintings
we noted at the beginning of this program.
(MUSIC)
DOUG JOHNSON: Edward Hopper began to struggle with his art during
the nineteen fifties and sixties. He had trouble finding interesting subjects.
When he did find good things to paint, he struggled to paint them well.
At the same time, the artistic community became less interested in realistic
paintings. In the nineteen fifties, the abstract expressionist style became
very popular. These artists refused to have subjects to paint. They wanted
to paint about painting and paint about ideas. They thought Hoppers
style was no longer modern or important. As a result, the paintings he did
complete met less success than during the earlier years.
Edward Hopper died in nineteen sixty-seven. His wife Jo died less than a
year later.
Many years after his death, Hoppers work is still popular in this country
and outside America. In two thousand four, the famous Tate Art Gallery in
London had a show of his paintings. This show brought the second-largest
number of visitors of any show in the history of the museum. Today,
people say Edward Hopper was one of the best American artists of the
twentieth century.
(MUSIC)
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: This program was written by Sarah Randle and
produced by Mario Ritter. Im Shirley Griffith.
DOUG JOHNSON: And Im Doug Johnson. You can read, listen to and
download this program at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com. Join us
again next week for PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.