When the Museum of Modern Art opened in New York City in 1930, the first work they acquired was House by the Railroad, a painting by Edward Hopper. At a retrospective three years later, his work was described as having a “highly identifiable mature style, in which urban settings, New England landscapes, and interiors are all pervaded by a sense of silence and estrangement. His chosen locations are often vacant of human activity, and they frequently imply the transitory nature of contemporary life.” (source)
Who was Edward Hopper, and how did he come to influence generations of painters, to this day?
Hopper was born in 1882 in New York. He came from a middle class family, and thus was able to devote time and resources to studying art. On a trip to Paris in 1906 he discovered the Impressionists (Cezanne, Monet, Manet et al.) and though his work would always maintain a strong American atmosphere, the European impressionists came to heavily influence his style as a painter, infusing light into his work.
As with many artists, past and present, Hopper struggled to make a name for himself in the overcrowded New York art scene. It wasn’t until the 1920s, when he was 37, that Hopper’s career took off.
After an acclaimed one-person exhibition, in which none of his paintings sold, Hopper broke into the public consciousness with a second exhibition at the Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery in New York. Again critically acclaimed, this time the gallery sold every single painting on display, and Hopper was instantly the new darling of the art scene.
It was not long after that the Museum of Modern art acquired his painting as their first, cementing his name as legendary in the world of New York art. Even in his later years, when the school of Abstract Expressionism came to dominate American art during the more optimistic post-war period, Hopper’s themes of tension and isolation still resonated with the public.
To this day Hopper is thought of as one of the great modern American artists and his iconic paintings continue to be an inspiration and influence to artists all over the world.