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Edward Hopper was born
Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, New York, a small shipbuilding community on the Hudson River. The younger of two children in an educated middle-class family -
An exhibition of natural talent
Hopper was encouraged in his intellectual and artistic pursuits and by the age of 5 was already exhibiting a natural talent. He continued to develop his abilities during grammar school and high school, working in a range of media and forming an early love for impressionism and pastoral subject matter. -
First signed work
Among his earliest signed works is an 1895 oil painting of a rowboat, called: "Rowboat in Rocky Cove". It shows his early interest in nautical subjects. -
Began art studies
Hopper began art studies with a correspondence course in 1899. Soon he transferred to the New York School of Art and Design, the forerunner of Parsons The New School for Design. There he studied for six years, with teachers including William Merritt Chase, who instructed him in oil painting -
Solitary Figure in a Theater: first existing oil painting
Hopper's first existing oil painting to hint at his famous interiors was Solitary Figure in a Theater (c.1904). During his student years, he also painted dozens of nudes, still life studies, landscapes, and portraits, including his self-portraits. -
First work: illustrator for an advertising agency
Having completed his studies, in 1905 Hopper found work as an illustrator for an advertising agency. Although he found the work creatively stifling and unfulfilling, it would be the primary means by which he would support himself while continuing to create his own art. -
Trips to define his personal style
He was also able to make several trips abroad—to Paris in 1906, 1909 and 1910 as well as Spain in 1910—experiences that proved pivotal in the shaping of his personal style. Despite the rising popularity of such abstract movements as cubism and fauvism in Europe, Hopper was most taken by the works of the impressionists, particularly those of Claude Monet and Edouard Manet, whose use of light would have a lasting influence on Hopper’s art. -
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Trips to define his personal style
From 1906 to 1910, Hopper traveled around Europe to define his personal style -
First sold painting
At the famous Armory Show, Hopper earned $250 when he sold his first painting, Sailing (1911), which he had painted over an earlier self-portrait. -
Shipping Board Prize
Hopper was awarded the U.S. Shipping Board Prize for his war poster, "Smash the Hun." He participated in three exhibitions: in 1917 with the Society of Independent Artists, in January 1920 (a one-man exhibition at the Whitney Studio Club, which was the precursor to the Whitney Museum), and in 1922 (again with the Whitney Studio Club). -
Get married with Josephine Nivison
At age 37, Hopper was given his first one-man show, held at the Whitney Studio Club and arranged by art collector and patron Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.
Three years later, while summering in Massachusetts, Hopper became reacquainted with Josephine Nivison, a former classmate of his who was herself a fairly successful painter. The two were married in 1924 and quickly became inseparable, often working together and influencing each other’s styles. -
Most representative Hopper's work
He completed what is his best-known painting, Nighthawks, featuring three patrons and a waiter sitting inside a brightly lit diner on a quiet, empty street. With its stark composition, masterful use of light and mysterious narrative quality, Nighthawks arguably stands as Hopper’s most representative work. It was purchased almost immediately by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains on display to the present day. -
Latest works
Although his gradually failing health slowed Hopper’s productivity during this time, works such as Hotel Window (1955), New York Office (1963) and Sun in an Empty Room (1963) all display his characteristic themes, moods and ability to convey stillness. -
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Last works
Hopper's last works were made while his health was failing. Painting was an ability to convey stillness -
Entrance to the White House
Jacqueline Kennedy chose his work House of Squam Light, Cape Ann to be displayed in the White House. -
Death
He died at his Washington Square home in New York City at the age of 84, and was buried in his hometown of Nyack. Josephine died less than a year later and bequeathed both his work and hers to the Whitney Museum.
