There is such a catchy painting that instantly catches the viewer. There is no bewilderment or wariness, everything seems to be clear right away, as in love at first sight. It is not surprising that careful looking, thinking and feeling can harm such love. Is it possible to find there, behind the external shine, something deep and fundamental? Not a fact.
Let’s take, for example, impressionism, which has been fashionable for the second hundred years. There is probably no more popular movement in the history of painting for today’s mass audience. However, how artistic direction Impressionism turned out to be surprisingly fleeting, existing in its pure form for a short twenty years. Its founding fathers eventually abandoned their creation, feeling the exhaustion of ideas and methods. Renoir returned to the classical forms of Ingres, and Monet stepped forward to abstractionism.
The opposite also happens. The paintings are modest and unpretentious, the motifs are ordinary, and the techniques are traditional. Here is a house by the road, here is a girl at the window, and here is a generally banal gas station. No atmosphere, no lighting effects, no romantic passions. If you shrug your shoulders and move on, then everything will remain so. And if you stop and look closely, you will discover an abyss.
This is the painting of Edward Hopper, one of the most famous American artists of the twentieth century.
Without noticing Europe
Hopper's biography contains almost no bright events or unexpected turns. He studied, went to Paris, worked, got married, continued to work, received recognition... No throwing around, scandals, divorces, alcoholism, shocking antics - nothing “fried” for the yellow press. In this, Hopper's life story is similar to his paintings: outwardly everything is simple, even calm, but deep down lies dramatic tension.
Already in childhood, he discovered an ability to draw, in which his parents supported him in every possible way. After school, he studied illustration by correspondence for a year, and then entered the prestigious New York Art School. American sources provide a whole list of his famous classmates, but their names mean almost nothing to the Russian viewer. With the exception of Rockwell Kent, all of them remained artists of national importance.
In 1906, Hopper completed his studies and began working as an illustrator in an advertising agency, but in the fall he went to Europe.
It must be said that traveling to Europe was almost a mandatory part of professional education for American artists. At that time, the star of Paris shone brightly, and young and ambitious people flocked there from all over the world to join the latest achievements and trends in world painting.
It is amazing how different the consequences of this cooking in an international cauldron were. Some, like the Spaniard Picasso, quickly turned from students into leaders and themselves became trendsetters in artistic fashion. Others forever remained epigones, albeit talented ones, like Mary Cassatt and James Abbott McNeil Whistler. Still others, for example, Russian artists, returned to their homeland, infected and charged with the spirit of new art, and already at home blazed a path from the margins of world painting to its avant-garde.
Hopper turned out to be the most original of all. He traveled around Europe, was in Paris, London, Amsterdam, returned to New York, again went to Paris and Spain, spent time in European museums and met European artists... But, apart from short-term influences, his painting does not reveal acquaintance with modern trends. Not at all, even the palette barely brightened!
He appreciated Rembrandt and Hals, later El Greco, and masters close in time - Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas, who by that time had already become classics. As for Picasso, Hopper quite seriously claimed that he had not heard his name while in Paris.
It's hard to believe, but the fact remains. The Post-Impressionists had just passed away, the Fauvists and Cubists were already breaking their spears, Futurism was looming on the horizon, painting was breaking away from the image of the visible and focusing on the problems and limitations of the picture plane, Picasso and Matisse were shining. But Hopper, being in the thick of things, didn’t seem to see this.
And after 1910 he never crossed the Atlantic, even when his paintings were exhibited in the American pavilion of the prestigious Venice Biennale.
Artist for earnings
In 1913, Hopper settled in New York in Washington Square, where he lived and worked for more than fifty years - until the end of his days. That same year he sold his first painting, exhibited at the famous Armory Show in New York. It seemed that the career was off to a promising start and success was just around the corner.
It turned out far from so rosy. “Armory Show” was conceived as the first exhibition in the USA contemporary art and in this capacity gained great success. It turned the eyes of amateurs, critics and artists away from realism and towards the avant-garde, although it was accompanied by ridicule and scandals. Against the background of Duchamp, Picasso, Picabia, Brancusi, Braque, Hopper's realism looked provincial and outdated. America decided that it was necessary to catch up with Europe, wealthy collectors became interested in overseas art, and single sales of domestic works did not make a difference.
Hopper worked for many years as a commercial illustrator. He even abandoned painting and devoted himself to etching - a technique at that time more suitable for printing. He was not in the service, he worked part-time with magazine orders and experienced all the hardships of this situation, at times even falling into depression.
However, in the then New York there was a patron of the arts who decided to collect works by American artists - Gertrude Whitney, the daughter of millionaire Vanderbilt; by the way, the same one with whom the cannibal Ellochka unsuccessfully competed, exchanging a tea strainer from Ostap Bender for one of the twelve chairs.
Night shadows.
Subsequently, the Whitney tried to donate her collection of contemporary American artists to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but its management did not consider the gift worthy. The rejected collector, in revenge, founded her own museum nearby, which is still considered the best museum American art.
Evening wind. 1921. American Art Museum, New York
But that's in the future. While Hopper was visiting the Whitney studio, where in 1920 his first personal exhibition was held - 16 paintings. Some of his etchings also attracted public attention, in particular “Night Shadows” and “Evening Wind”. But he still could not become a free artist and continued to make money as an illustration.
Family and recognition
In 1923, Hopper met his future wife Josephine. Their family turned out to be strong, but family life was not easy. Jo forbade her husband to paint nudes and, if necessary, posed herself. Edward was even jealous of her cat. Everything was aggravated by his taciturnity and gloomy character. “Sometimes talking to Eddie was like throwing a stone down a well. With one exception: the sound of falling into the water could not be heard,” she admitted.
Edward and Joe Hopper. 1933
However, it was Jo who reminded Hopper of the possibilities of watercolor, and he returned to this technique. He soon exhibited six works at the Brooklyn Museum, and one of them was purchased by the museum for $100. Critics reacted favorably to the exhibition and noted the vitality and expressiveness of Hopper’s watercolors, even with the most modest subjects. This combination of external restraint and expressive depth will become Hopper's trademark for the rest of the years.
In 1927, Hopper sold the painting “Two in an Auditorium” for $1,500, and with this money the couple bought their first car. The artist was given the opportunity to travel for sketches, and rural provincial America became one of the main motifs of his painting for a long time.
Two people in the auditorium. 1927. Museum of Art, Toledo
In 1930, another important event occurred in the artist’s life. Philanthropist Stephen Clark donated his painting “The House railway” to the New York Museum of Modern Art, and it has hung prominently there ever since.
So, shortly before his fiftieth birthday, Hopper entered a time of recognition. In 1931 he sold 30 works, including 13 watercolors. In 1932, he took part in the first regular exhibition of the Whitney Museum and did not miss the subsequent ones until his death. In 1933, in honor of the artist’s anniversary, the Museum of Modern Art presented a retrospective of his works.
For the next thirty years of his life, Hopper worked productively, despite health problems that arose in old age. Jo survived him by ten months and bequeathed the entire family collection of works to the Whitney Museum.
Night owls. 1942. Art Institute, Chicago
In his mature years, the artist created many recognized masterpieces, for example, “Early Sunday Morning,” “Night Owls,” “The Office in New York,” and “Men in the Sun.” During this time, he received many awards, traveled to Canada and Mexico, and was presented at several retrospective and solo exhibitions.
Protection from surveillance
It cannot be said that all these years his painting did not develop. But still, Hopper found his favorite themes and images early, and if anything changed, it was the convincingness of their embodiment.
If one were to find a short formula for Hopper's work, it would be “alienation and isolation.” Where are his heroes looking? Why did they freeze in the middle of the day? What prevents them from starting a dialogue, reaching out to each other, calling out and responding? There is no answer, and, to be honest, almost no questions arise, at least for them. This is how they are, this is how life is, this is how the world divides people with invisible barriers.
This invisibility of barriers seriously worried Hopper, which is why there are so many windows in his paintings. Glass is a visual connection, but a physical barrier. His heroes and heroines, visible from the street, seem to be open to the world, but in fact they are closed, immersed in themselves - take a look at “Night Owls” or “The Office in New York”. Such duality gives rise to a poignant combination of fragile vulnerability and stubborn inaccessibility, even inaccessibility.
If, on the contrary, we, together with the characters, look out through the glass, then the window again deceives, only teasing us with the opportunity to see something. At best, the outside world is only indicated by an array of trees or buildings, and often nothing is visible in the window, as, for example, in “Evening Wind” or in the painting “Automat”.
Automat. 1927. Arts Center, Des Moines. USA
And in general, Hopper's windows and doors are characterized by the same combination of openness and closedness as the animated characters. Slightly open doors, fluttering curtains, closed blinds, and doors that are not completely closed move from picture to picture.
What is transparent is impenetrable, but what should connect divides. Hence the constant feeling of mystery, understatement, failed contact.
Loneliness among people, in a big city, in full view of everyone, has become a cross-cutting theme of twentieth-century art, only here, in Hopper, it is not the loneliness from which people flee, but the loneliness from which they are saved. His characters' reticence feels like a natural form of self-protection, not a whim or a personality trait. The light pouring on them is too merciless and they are exposed too openly to everyone, and in the world around them there lurks some kind of indifferent threat. Therefore, instead of external barriers, internal ones have to be erected.
Of course, if you destroy the walls in the office, work efficiency will increase, because in front of each other, and especially the boss, people are less distracted and chattering. But when everyone is under surveillance, communication stops and silence becomes the only form of defense. The heroes are restrained, instincts are suppressed, passions are driven deep - civilized, cultured people in the protective armor of external decency.
Attention beyond
Very often Hopper's paintings create the impression of a frozen moment. And this despite the fact that in the picture itself the movement is not indicated at all. But it is perceived as if it were a film frame that has just replaced the previous one and is ready to give way to the next one. It is no coincidence that Hopper was so valued by American film directors, in particular Hitchcock, and Hollywood standards for framing shots were largely shaped by his influence.
The artist tended to direct the viewer’s attention not so much to the moment being depicted, but to the imaginary events that preceded or followed it. This skill, rare in the history of painting, paradoxically combined the achievements of impressionism, with its keen attention to the moment, and post-impressionism, which wanted to compress the passage of time into a momentary artistic image.
Hopper really managed to firmly pin an elusive moment of existence to the canvas and at the same time hint at the incessant flow of time, bringing it to the surface and immediately carrying it into the dark depths of the past. If futurism tried to depict movement directly on the pictorial plane, then Hopper takes it beyond the boundaries of painting, but leaves it within the limits of our perception. We don't see it, but we feel it.
The artist also manages to redirect our attention beyond the boundaries of the picture, not only in time, but also in space. The characters look somewhere outside, the viewer’s gaze is drawn there by the highway flying past the gas station, and on the railway the eye manages to catch only the last car of the train. And more often than not, he’s no longer there, the train has rushed by, and we involuntarily and unsuccessfully glance after him along the rails.
This is America as it is - no longing for what was lost, no celebration of progress. But if it were only America, it would not have fallen to Hopper's lot worldwide fame, just as many of his contemporaries of no worse skill did not get it. In fact, Hopper managed to touch universal feelings using national material. He paved the way for the international recognition of American painting, although it was brought to leading roles in world art by post-war artists who were not recognized by Hopper himself.
His path is unique. In the turbulent world of vibrant artistic movements, he managed not to succumb to anyone’s influence and walk along the narrow path between romanticism and social criticism, between the avant-garde obsession with concepts and the deliberate naturalism of precisionism and hyperrealism, remaining completely true to himself.
Hopper, Edward (1882 - 1967)
Hopper, Edward
Edward Hopper was born July 22, 1882. He was the second child of Garrett Henry Hopper and Elizabeth Griffith Smith. After the wedding, the young couple settles in Nyack, a small but prosperous port near New York, not far from Elizabeth's widowed mother. There the Baptist couple, the Hoppers, would raise their children: Marion, born in 1880, and Edward. Either due to a natural inclination of character, or due to a strict upbringing, Edward will grow up silent and withdrawn. Whenever possible, he will prefer to retire.
The artist's childhood
Parents, and especially the mother, sought to give their children a good education. Trying to develop the creative abilities of her children, Elizabeth immerses them in the world of books, theater and the arts. With its help, theatrical performances and cultural conversations were organized. The brother and sister spent a lot of time reading in their father's library. Edward gets acquainted with the works American classics, reads translations of Russian and French writers.
Young Hopper began to be interested in painting and drawing very early. He educates himself, copying the illustrations of Phil May and the French draftsman Gustave Doré (1832-1883). Edward will become the author of his first independent works at the age of ten.
From the windows of his home, located on a hill, the boy admires the ships and sailboats sailing in Hudson Bay. Seascape will remain a source of inspiration for him throughout his life - the artist will never forget the view of the east coast of the United States, often returning to it in his works. At the age of fifteen, he built his own sailboat from parts provided by his father.
After attending private school, Edward attended high school in Nyack, graduating in 1899. Hopper is seventeen years old, and he has one burning desire - to become an artist. His parents, who always supported their son’s creative endeavors, were even pleased with his decision. They recommend starting with graphic arts, or better yet, from a drawing. Following their advice, Hopper first enrolled in the Correspondence School of Illustrating in New York to learn the profession of illustrator. Then in 1900 he entered the New York School of Art, popularly called Chase School, where he would study until 1906. His teacher there would be Professor Robert Henry (1865-1929), a painter whose work was dominated by portraits. Edward was a diligent student. Thanks to his talent, he received many scholarships and awards. In 1904, The Sketch book magazine published an article about the activities of Chase School. The text was illustrated with a piece by Hopper depicting a model. However, the artist will have to wait many more years before he gets a taste of success and fame.
The irresistible charm of Paris
In 1906, after graduating from school, Hopper got a job in the advertising bureau of CC Philips and Company. This lucrative position does not satisfy his creative ambitions, but it allows him to feed himself. In October of the same year, the artist, on the advice of his teacher, decides to visit Paris. A great admirer of Degas, Manet, Rembrandt and Goya, Robert Henry sent Hopper to Europe to enrich his stock of impressions and gain a detailed acquaintance with European art.
Hopper would remain in Paris until August 1907. He immediately succumbs to the charm of the French capital. Later, the artist would write: “Paris is a beautiful, elegant city, and even too decent and calm in comparison with the terribly noisy New York.” Edward Hopper is twenty years old and continues his education on the European continent, visiting museums, galleries and art salons. Before returning to New York on August 21, 1907, he made several voyages around Europe. First, the artist comes to London, which he retains the memory of as a city “sad and sorrowful”; there he becomes acquainted with the works of Turner in the National Gallery. Hopper then travels to Amsterdam and Haarlem, where he is excited to discover Vermeer, Hals and Rembrandt. At the end he visits Berlin and Brussels.
After returning to his hometown Hopper again works as an illustrator, and a year later he goes to Paris. This time, working in the open air gives him endless pleasure. Following in the footsteps of the Impressionists, he painted the embankments of the Seine in Charenton and Saint-Cloud. Bad weather in France forces Hopper to end his journey. He returned to New York, where in August 1909 he exhibited his paintings for the first time as part of the Exhibition of Independent Artists, organized with the assistance of John Sloan (1871-1951) and Robert Henry. Inspired by creative achievements, Hopper last time will visit Europe in 1910. The artist will spend several weeks in May in Paris and then go to Madrid. There he will be more impressed by the bullfight than spanish artists, about which he subsequently does not mention a word. Before returning to New York, Hopper stops in Toledo, which he describes as "wonderful old town" The artist would never come to Europe again, but he would remain impressed by these travels for a long time, admitting later: “After this return, everything seemed too ordinary and terrible to me.”
Difficult start
Return to American reality it's hard. Hopper is desperately short of funds. Suppressing his dislike for the work of an illustrator, the artist, forced to earn a living, returns to it again. He works in advertising and for periodicals such as Sandy Magazine, Metropolitan Magazine and System: Magazine of Business. However, Hopper devotes every free minute to painting. “I never wanted to work more than three days a week,” he would say later. “I saved time for my creativity, illustration depressed me.”
Hopper persists in painting, which remains his true passion. But success does not come. In 1912, the artist presented his Parisian paintings at a collective exhibition at the Mac Dowell Club in New York (from now on he would exhibit here regularly until 1918). Hopper is vacationing in Gloucester, a small town on the Massachusetts coast. In the company of his friend Leon Kroll, he returns to childhood memories, drawing the sea and ships that always fascinate him.
In 1913, the artist’s efforts finally began to bear fruit. Invited by the National Select Committee to take part in the New York Armory Show in February, Hopper is selling his first painting. The euphoria of success quickly passes, since others will not follow this sale. In December, the artist settled at 3 Washington Square North, New York, where he would live for more than half a century, until his death.
The following years were very difficult for the artist. He cannot live on the income from the sale of paintings. So Hopper continued his illustration work, often for meager earnings. In 1915, Hopper exhibited two of his paintings, including “Blue Evening,” at the Mac Dowell Club, and critics finally noticed him. However, he will wait for his personal exhibition, which will take place at the Whitney Studio Club, only in February 1920. At that time, Hopper was thirty-seven years old.
Inspired by his success in the field of painting, the artist experiments in other techniques. One of his etchings will receive many different awards in 1923. Hopper also tries his hand at watercolor painting.
The artist spends the summer in Gloucester, where he never stops painting landscapes and architecture. He works with great enthusiasm, he is driven by love. Josephine Verstiel Nivison, whom the artist first met at the New York Academy fine arts, spends his holidays in the same area and wins the artist’s heart.
Finally recognition!
Josephine, who has no doubt about Hopper's great talent, inspires him to participate in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. The watercolors the artist displays there bring him considerable success, and Hopper revels in the growing recognition. Their romance with Joe develops, they discover more and more common ground. Both love theater, poetry, travel and Europe. Hopper is distinguished during this period by simply insatiable curiosity. He loves American and foreign literature and can even recite Goethe's poems by heart in the original language. Sometimes he writes his letters to his beloved Jo in French. Hopper is a great connoisseur of cinema, especially black and white American cinema, the influence of which is clearly visible in his work. Fascinated by this silent and calm man with a distinguished appearance and intelligent eyes, the energetic and full of life Jo marries Edward Hopper on July 9, 1924. The wedding took place at the Evangelical Church in Greenwich Village.
1924 was a year of success for the artist. After the wedding, the happy Hopper exhibits watercolors at Frank Ren Gelerie. All works were sold straight from the exhibition. Having waited for recognition, Hopper can finally quit his boring job as an illustrator and do his favorite work.
Hopper is rapidly becoming a “fashionable” artist. Now he can “pay the bills.” Elected a member of the National Academy of Design, he refuses to accept the title because the Academy has not accepted his work in the past. The artist does not forget those who offended him, just as he remembers with gratitude those who helped and trusted him. Hopper will “shall be faithful” throughout his life to Frank Wren Guelery and the Whitney Museum, to which he bequeaths his works.
Years of recognition and glory
After 1925, Hopper's life stabilized. The artist lives in New York and spends every summer on the New England coast. In early November 1933, the first retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Next year the Hoppers are building a studio home in Sauce Truro, where they will spend their holidays. The artist jokingly calls the house a “chicken coop.”
However, the couple's attachment to this house does not prevent them from traveling. When Hopper lacks creative inspiration, the couple travels out into the world. So, in 1943-1955 they visited Mexico five times, and also spent a long time traveling around the United States. In 1941, they drove across half of America by car, visiting Colorado, Utah, the Nevada desert, California and Wyoming.
Edward and Joe live exemplary lives and in perfect harmony with each other, but some kind of rivalry casts a shadow on their union. Jo, who was also an artist, suffers silently in the shadow of her husband's fame. Since the early thirties, Edward has become internationally famous artist; The number of his exhibitions is growing, and numerous awards and prizes do not bypass him. In 1945, Hopper was elected a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. This institution awarded him in 1955 gold medal for services to the field of painting. A second retrospective of Hopper's paintings took place at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1950 (the museum would host the artist twice more: in 1964 and 1970). In 1952, the work of Hopper and three other artists was selected to represent the United States at the Venice Biennale. In 1953, Hopper, along with other artists representing figurative painting, took part in editing the Reality review. Taking this opportunity, he protests against the dominance of abstract artists within the walls of the Whitney Museum.
In 1964, Hopper begins to get sick. The artist is eighty-two years old. Despite the difficulties with which painting was given to him, in 1965 he created two, which became his last, works. These paintings were painted in memory of my sister who died this year. Edward Hopper dies on May 15, 1967 at the age of eighty-five in his Washington Square studio. Shortly before this, he received international recognition as a representative of American painting at the Sao Paulo Biennale. The transfer of the entire creative legacy of Edward Hopper to the Whitney Museum, where today most of his works can be seen, will be carried out by the artist’s wife Jo, who will leave this world a year after him.
The American artist Edward Hopper is considered by some to be an urbanist, and by others to be a representative magical realism, and some - the predecessor of pop art. Fans of Hopper's work enthusiastically call him “a dreamer without illusions” and “a poet of empty spaces.” Hopper’s dramatic painting entitled “Night Owls” unites all opinions. It is as recognizable as Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa", Edvard Munch's "The Scream" or Coolidge's "Dogs Playing Poker". The incredible popularity of this work has placed him among the icons of pop culture.
(Edward Hopper, 1882-1967) was a prominent representative of the American genre painting XX century. And, although it was during this period that new trends in art were emerging, he remained indifferent to the avant-garde changes and experiments of his colleagues. Contemporaries who kept up with fashion were fond of cubism, surrealism and abstractionism, and considered Hopper's painting boring and conservative. Edward suffered, but did not betray his ideals: “ How can they not understand: the originality of an artist is not ingenuity and not a method, especially not a fashionable method, it is the quintessence of personality
».
And Edward Hopper was a very complex person. And very closed. Moreover, to such an extent that after his death, almost the only source of information about his life and character turned out to be his wife’s diary. In one interview she reported:
One day, a New Yorker magazine employee was trying to write an essay about Edward's life. And I couldn't. There was no material. Nothing to write home about. His real biography Only I could write it. And it would be pure Dostoevsky« .
He was like this from childhood, although the boy grew up in a good family of a haberdashery store owner in the town of Nyack (New York State). The family was no stranger to art: on weekends, father, mother and children sometimes came to New York to visit art exhibitions or go to the theater. The boy secretly wrote down his impressions in a thick notebook. A lot of things were hidden there from adults. In particular, his experiences and grievances when, at the age of 12, he suddenly grew 30 cm over the summer and began to look terribly awkward and lanky. His classmates mocked and teased him about this at every turn. Perhaps, from this unfortunate incident, Edward Hopper forever retained his painful shyness, isolation and silence. His wife wrote in her diary: “ Saying anything to Ed is like throwing a stone into a bottomless well. You won't hear a splash «.
Naturally, this was reflected in the style of his paintings. Hopper loved to paint lifeless interiors and deserted landscapes: railway dead ends leading to nowhere, deserted cafes filled with loneliness. Window openings were a constant leitmotif of his work. The artist seemed to be looking for a way out of his closed world. Or, perhaps, he secretly opened the entrance to himself: the sunlight entering through the windows into the rooms slightly warmed the cold, ascetic paintings of Hopper. We can say that against the backdrop of his gloomy landscapes and interiors, the sun's rays on his canvases exactly embody the metaphor " a ray of light in a dark kingdom «.
But mostly, Hopper depicted loneliness in his paintings. Hopper even has lonely sunsets, streets and houses. The depicted couples, especially couples, look no less lonely in his canvases. Mutual dissatisfaction and alienation between men and women is a recurring theme in Edward Hopper.
The topic had a completely vital basis: in the fortieth year of his life, Hopper married his age-old Josephine Nivison, whom he had known in New York. art school. They moved in the same circles, were connected by the same interests, and had similar views on many things. But their family life were filled with all sorts of discord and scandals, sometimes leading to fights. According to the wife's diary, the rude husband was to blame for everything. At the same time, according to the recollections of acquaintances, it is clear that Jo herself was far from the ideal keeper of the family hearth. For example, when artist friends once asked her: “ What is Edward's favorite dish??”, she said arrogantly: “ Don't you think that in our circle there is too much delicious food and too little good painting? Our favorite dish is a friendly can of baked beans.«.
Hopper's paintings of couples clearly depict the tragedy of his relationship with his wife. They lived suffering and tormenting each other, and at the same time, they were inseparable. They were united by a love of French poetry, painting, theater and cinema - this was enough for them to stay together. Josephine was even the muse and main model for Edward's paintings painted after 1923. In a couple of late-night diner patrons depicted in his painting Night Owls, the author once again, clearly portrayed himself and his wife, the alienation of the man and woman sitting next to him is so obvious.
"Night Owls" (Nighthawks), 1942, Edward Hopper
By coincidence, it was the picture "Night Owls" has become a cult work of art in the United States. (In the original it is called “ Nighthawks", which can also be translated as " Owls"). Edward Hopper painted Night Owls in 1942, just after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The event caused a feeling of oppression and anxiety throughout America. This explained the gloomy, scattered atmosphere of Hopper’s canvas, where the diner’s visitors are lonely and thoughtful, the deserted street is illuminated by the dim light of the shop window, and a lifeless house serves as the backdrop. However, the author denied that he wanted to express some kind of depression. In his words, he " may have unconsciously depicted loneliness in big city ».
In any case, Hopper's midnight cafe is critically different from the urban cafes his colleagues portrayed. Usually, these establishments always and everywhere carried a flair of romance and love. Vincent Van Gogh, depicting a night cafe in Arles, did not use black paint at all; people were sitting on an open terrace, and the sky, like a field of flowers, was strewn with stars.
"Cafe Terrace at Night", Arles, 1888, Vincent Van Gogh Is it possible to compare his motley palette with the coolness and stinginess of Hopper’s colors? And yet, looking at the painting “Night Owls,” it becomes clear that behind the emphasized laconicism of Hopper’s writing lies an abyss of expressiveness. His silent characters, immersed in their own thoughts, seem to be participating in a drama on a stage bathed in deathly fluorescent light. The geometry of parallel lines, the uniform rhythm of the lifeless windows of the neighboring building, echoed by the seats along the bar counter, the contrast of massive stone walls and transparent fragile glass, behind which the figures of four people hid in an island of light, have a hypnotic effect on the viewer... It seems that the author deliberately locked them here, hiding from the indifferent darkness of the street - if you look closely, you will notice that there is not a single visible exit from the room.
Painting "Night Owls" had a great influence on American culture. Postmodernists have used the painting for countless parody remakes based on literature, cinema and painting.
Allusions and parodies to this work by Edward Hopper are found in many paintings, films, books and songs. Tom Waits named one of his albums " Nighthawks at the Diner» — « Night owls at the diner" This painting is one of director David Lynch's favorite works. It also influenced the appearance of the city in Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner.
Inspired by Night Owls Austrian artist Gottfried Helnwein made a famous remake called " Boulevard of Broken Dreams " Instead of faceless characters, he placed 4 celebrities in the cosmic void of loneliness - Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, Elvis Presley and James Dean. Thus, hinting at how meaningless their life and talent prematurely sank into emptiness: Presley died as a result of long-term use and abuse of alcohol and drugs; Marilyn died from an overdose of antidepressants; Bogart's death was also a result of alcohol abuse, and James Dean died in a tragic car accident.
Other authors of parody remakes have used iconic US works from various fields of art. First of all, the most popular - American cinema with its famous characters, comic book super heroes and stories known throughout the world. The gloomy style of black and white film noir ( film noir ).
To make sure, watch the “cut” of frames from noir films of the 40s, which change to the song “ Boulevard of Broken Dreams " (In 2005, members of the Punk band Green Day said that their second single received its title and corresponding posters under the direct influence of Hopper's painting).
Also ironically, remakes played on many other Hollywood fetishes.
Star wars 
Star wars 
The Simpsons 
Family Guy 
based on cult comic The Adventures of Tintin 
Superman and Batman 
Zombie 
remake of the film “The Dead Bride”, directed by Tim Burton Various popular shows and TV series have not escaped the fate of becoming parody remakes of Hopper’s paintings.
parody poster of the comedy television series "Seinfeld" (1989-1998) 
parody poster on the theme of the crime series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” Of course, the parodies played up the enclosed space of the cafe, emphasized by the author in his painting.
And the cold tones of the picture and the asceticism of the palette evoked associations with outer space among many jokers.
All sorts of American urban landscape clichés were also in use.
Well, where it’s a street at night and there are no cops nearby, it’s quite logical that the street graffiti hooligan Banksy might appear, albeit throwing plastic chairs into the window of a cafe.
One could also cite hundreds of examples of ironic remakes of Edward Hopper's paintings, made on all sorts of topics. This is one of the most common Internet memes. And such fertility only confirms that true masterpieces are not subject to time.
Having been drawn to drawing since childhood, Edward first went to New York, where he studied courses for advertising artists, after which, after studying at the Robert Henry School, he went to the then Mecca of independent artists - Paris. And it's not easy curriculum vitae, all of the above will have a great influence on the formation of the unique Hopper style.
Tugboat on the Boulevard Saint-Michel (1907)
The master’s early paintings follow the Impressionists both in subject matter and stylistically. Desire is noticeable young artist imitate everyone: from Degas and Van Gogh, to Monet and Pissarro. “Summer Interior” (1909), “Bistro” (1909), “Tug on the Boulevard Saint-Michel” (1907), “Valley of the Seine” (1908) - these are paintings with a clear “European” aftertaste, which Hopper will get rid of for ten years. These works can be called exquisite and quite talented, but they did not determine the artist’s success, although they outlined his main themes.
Hopper is an urban artist; the vast majority of his canvases are dedicated to city life and city dwellers; country houses are less common, and pure landscapes are so rare that they can be counted on one hand. As well as portraits of people, by the way. But “portraits” of houses appear regularly in Hopper’s works, especially throughout the 1920s, among them “Talbot House” (1928), “Captain Killy’s House” (1931), “House by the Railway” (1925). If we talk about buildings, the master also often depicts lighthouses: “Hill with a Lighthouse”, “Lighthouse and Houses”, “Captain Upton’s House” (the latter is also a “portrait”), all from 1927.
Captain Upton's House (1927)
The French influence can be traced in the love of depicting cabarets, theatres, bistros, restaurants, ("Owner" "Tables for Ladies", "New York Cinema", "New York Restaurant", "Sheridan Theatre", "Two in the Parterre" , “Automatic”, “Chinese Stew”, “Stripper”), most of these stories took place in the 30s, but Hopper did not stop writing them until his death in the mid-60s (“Two Comedians”, “Intermission” ).
However, already after the shift geographical names One can guess the change in Hopper's focus on the European artistic tradition, which was replaced by the "Garbage Pail School" organized by Hopper's former mentor Robert Henry. The “bucket workers” were a kind of American Itinerants, adjusted for the times, who depicted the urban poor.
American Village (1912)
The group’s activity was rather fleeting, but, one must think, it was then that the seed of a kind of “soilism” sunk into Edward’s soul, in which he would take root in the early 30s, “singing” American life. This will not happen right away - “The American Village” (1912), where a half-empty street is depicted from a perspective characteristic of Pissarro, will be adjacent to paintings like “Yonkers” from 1916, which still retain their impressionistic charm.
To understand how often and radically Hopper changed his approaches, you can look at two paintings: Manhattan Bridge (1926) and Manhattan Bridge Loop (1928). The difference between the paintings will catch the eye of the most inexperienced viewer.
Manhattan Bridge (1926) and Manhattan Bridge Loop (1928)
Art Nouveau, impressionism, neoclassicism, American realism... if you add up the artist’s most experimental works, few would believe that they were painted by one person, they are so different from each other. Even after gaining popularity with “Night Owls,” Hopper kept diverting his attention to paintings like “Joe in Wyoming” (1946), which showed a view unusual for the master—from inside the car.
The theme of transport, by the way, was not alien to the artist: he painted trains (Locomotive D. & R. G., 1925), carriages (Railway Train, 1908), road junctions (Railway Sunset, 1929) and even rails, making them perhaps the most important element in the painting “House by the Railway” (1925). Sometimes it may seem that the machines of progress evoked more sympathy from Hopper than people - the artist distracts himself from schematism with them, sparing no detail.
Railway Sunset (1929)
When viewing a large number of Hopper’s “early” works, one gets a double impression: either he wanted to paint completely in different ways, or didn’t know exactly how he wanted to draw. This was the reason that many know the artist as the author of about twenty recognizable paintings, painted in an easily readable Hopper style, while the rest of his work unfairly remains hidden.
So what is he, “classic” Hopper?
“Night Windows” (1928) can be considered one of the first truly Hopper paintings. Although the motif of a girl in her room by the window can be traced back to the work “Summer Interior” (1909) and is found very often, then “Girl at the Typewriter” (1921), “Eleven in the Morning” (1926), however, they contain the classic a view from inside the building, but not an individual-Hopperian penetration “from the outside”, bordering on voyeurism.
Night Windows (1928)
In “Windows,” we surreptitiously observe a girl in lingerie, busy with her own affairs. We can only guess what the girl is doing; her head and hands are hidden by the wall of the house. Visually, the picture is devoid of any special refinements, halftones, etc. As for the plot, the viewer receives only a fragment of the story, but at the same time there is room for speculation, and most importantly, the experience of a voyeur.
It is this “voyeurism”, the view from the outside that will bring Hopper fame. His paintings will be simplified in all respects: boring, monotonous interiors, devoid of details, and the same, impersonal people to match them, on whose faces there is often not a single emotion. This also distinguishes the simply famous painting “Chop Suey” (1929) from the famous “Night Owls” (1942).
Chop suey (1929)
The simplicity of the images betrays the experience of advertising drawing that Hopper earned his living from. But it was not the schematism of the images that attracted the viewer to the artist’s works, but precisely this opportunity to look into someone else’s life or even... one’s own. Opportunity to find out what the heroes would look like advertising posters after “working” their shift on billboards and city lights, they returned “home”, removing the duty smiles from their faces. Men and women, together and separately, are in a kind of thoughtful, tired stupor, often not showing any emotions. The characters' lack of emotion, which reaches the point of roboticity, gives rise to a feeling of unreality and anxiety in the viewer.
Fatigue after a working day or morning dullness after sleep are signs of the obligatory Hopperian detachment, which is sometimes diluted by midday work boredom and indifference. Probably, the Great Depression also had a great influence on Hopper, which provided him with a thousand similar types, destitute, unnecessary, whose despair crumpled to the extent of indifference to their own fate.
An Excursion into Philosophy (1959)
Of course, closed, unsociable in ordinary life the artist added something of his own, deeply personal, to the images. Having met his love only in his fifties, he portrayed couples of men and women as indifferent and disconnected, even disappointed. This is best reflected in the painting “Excursion into Philosophy” (1959).
Hopper’s most “bright” works, literally and figuratively, are paintings where sunlight appears, often washing a woman “Woman in the Sun” (1961), “Summer in the City” (1950), “Morning Sun” (1952) , " Sunlight on the second floor" (1960) or even playing the role of the main character in "The Sun in an Empty Room" (1963) and "Rooms by the Sea" (1951). But even in these sun-soaked canvases, the lack of suitable emotions on the faces of the characters and the airlessness of the space enveloping them is alarming.
Rooms by the Sea (1951)
The collection of short stories “In Sun or Shade,” published in 2017, is a kind of confirmation of all of the above, emphasizing the relevance, significance and influence of Hopper’s work on American culture. Each of the stories is named after one of the artist’s paintings and is his literary “film adaptation.” The authors who worked on the collection tried to push the boundaries of the paintings, see their background and show what remained “behind the scenes”. The stories for the book were written by Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Michael Connelly, Joyce Carol Oates, Lee Child and other authors working primarily in the genres of horror, thriller and detective. The anxiety and mystery of Hopper's compositions only played into the hands of the masters.
In addition, Edward Hopper is a favorite artist of the master of cinematic surrealism David Lynch; the painting “House by the Railroad” formed the basis of the scenery legendary film Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho".
House by the Railway (1925)
Rooms for Tourists (1945)
Early Sunday Morning (1930)
Office at Night (1948)
Morning in South Carolina (1955)
Shore (1941)
Summer Evening (1947)
Quai de Grand Augustin (1909)
Barbershop (1931)
Circle Theater (1936)
Attic Roof (1923)
Sun in an Empty Room (1963)
Sunshine on the Second Floor (1960)
Railway train (1908)
Blue Night (1914)
City (1927)
Gas Station (1940)
New York Restaurant (1922)
Horse Trail (1939)
Coal Town in Pennsylvania (1947)
Office in a Small Town (1953)
Corn Hill (1930)
On the Waves of the Surf (1939)
New York Cinema (1939)
Trump Steamer (1908)
Girl at the Typewriter (1921)
Bistro (1909)
Sheridan Theater (1937)
Evening on Cape Cod (1939)
House at Sunset (1935)
Tables for Ladies (1930)
The City Is Coming (1946)
Yonkers (1916)
Joe in Wyoming (1946)
Pont des Arts (1907)
Haskell House (1924)
Morning on Cape Cod (1950)
Stripper (1941)
Morning Sun (1952)
Unknown.
Night Owls (1942)
There are images that immediately and for a long time captivate the viewer - they are like mousetraps for the eyes. The simple mechanics of such pictures, invented in accordance with the theory conditioned reflexes Academician Pavlov, is clearly visible in advertising or reporter photographs. Hooks of curiosity, lust, pain or compassion stick out from them in all directions - depending on the purpose of the image - selling washing powder or collecting charity funds. Having become accustomed, like a strong drug, to the flow of such pictures, one can overlook, miss, as insipid and empty, pictures of a different kind - real and living (unlike the first ones, which only imitate life). They are not so beautiful, and they certainly do not evoke the typical unconditional emotions, they are unexpected and their message is questionable. But only they can be called art, the illegal “stolen air” of Mandelstam.
In any field of art, there are artists who have created not only their own unique world, but also a system of vision of the surrounding reality, a method of transferring everyday phenomena into the reality of a work of art - into the small eternity of a painting, film or book. One of these artists who developed his own unique system of analytical vision and, so to speak, implanted his eyes into his followers, was Edward Hopper. Suffice it to say that many film directors around the world, including Alfred Hitchcock and Wim Wenders, considered themselves indebted to him. In the world of photography, his influence can be seen in the examples of Stephen Shore, Joel Meyerowitz, Philip-Lorca diCorcia and the list goes on. It seems that echoes of Hopper’s “detached gaze” can be seen even in Andreas Gursky.
Before us is a whole layer of modern visual culture with its own special way of seeing the world. A view from above, a view from the side, a look from a (bored) passenger from the train window - half-empty stops, unfinished gestures of those waiting, indifferent wall surfaces, cryptograms of railway wires. It's hardly fair to compare paintings and photography, but if it were allowed, we would consider the mythological concept of the “Decisive Moment”, introduced by Cartier-Bresson, using the example of Hopper’s paintings. Hopper's photographic eye unmistakably highlights his "decisive moment." Despite all the apparent randomness, the movements of the characters in the paintings, the colors of the surrounding buildings and clouds are precisely coordinated with each other and are subordinated to the identification of this “decisive moment”. True, this is a completely different moment than in the photographs of the famous Zen photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson. There this is the moment of peak movement performed by a person or an object; the moment when the situation being photographed has reached the maximum of its expressiveness, which allows you to create a picture characteristic of this particular moment in time with a clear and unambiguous plot, a kind of squeeze or quintessence of a “beautiful” moment that should be stopped at any cost. According to the precepts of Doctor Faustus.
Philippe-Lorca di Corchia "Eddie Anderson"
Modern journalistic narrative photography, and as a consequence, advertising photography, has its origins in the premise of stopping a beautiful or terrible moment. Both use the image only as an intermediary between the idea (product) and the consumer. In this system of concepts, the image becomes a clear text that does not allow any omissions or ambiguities. However, I am closer to the minor characters in magazine photographs - they still do not know anything about the “decisive moment”.
The “decisive moment” in Hopper’s paintings is a few moments behind Bresson’s. The movement there has only just begun, and the gesture has not yet taken on a phase of definiteness: we see its timid birth. And therefore, Hopper’s painting is always a mystery, always melancholic uncertainty, a miracle. We observe a timeless gap between moments, but the energetic tension of this moment is as great as in the creative void between the hand of Adam and the Creator in the Sistine Chapel. And if we talk about gestures, then the decisive gestures of God are rather Bressonian, and the unrevealed gestures of Adam are Hopperian. The first ones are a little “after”, the second ones are more like “before”.
The mystery of Hopper’s paintings also lies in the fact that the actual actions of the characters, their “decisive moment,” are only a hint of the true “decisive moment,” which is located outside the frame, beyond the boundaries of the frame, at the imaginary point of convergence of many other intermediate “decisive moments.” moments" of the painting.
At first glance, Edward Hopper's paintings lack all the external attributes that might attract the viewer - the complexity of the compositional solution or the incredible range of colors. Monotonous colorful surfaces covered with dull strokes can be called boring. But unlike “normal” paintings, Hopper’s works in an unknown way strike the very nerve of vision and leave the viewer thoughtful for a long time. What's the mystery here?
Just as a bullet with a displaced center of gravity hits harder and more painfully, so in Hopper’s paintings the semantic and compositional center of gravity is completely shifted to some imaginary space outside the boundaries of the painting itself. And this is the main mystery, and for this reason the paintings become in some way semantic negatives of ordinary paintings, built according to all the rules of pictorial art.
It is from this artistic space that the mysterious light flows, at which the inhabitants of the paintings look as if enchanted. What are these - the last rays of the setting sun, light street lamp, or the light of an unattainable ideal?
Despite the deliberately realistic subjects of the paintings and ascetic artistic techniques, the viewer is left with a feeling of elusive reality. And it seems that Hopper deliberately palms off the illusion of appearances on the viewer, so that behind the false moves the viewer will not be able to discern the most important and significant. Isn’t this what the reality around us does?
One of the most famous paintings Hopper's is NightHawks. Before us is a panorama of the night street. A closed empty store, dark windows of the building opposite, and on our side of the street - a window of a night cafe, or as they are called in New York - dive, in which there are four people - a married couple, a single person sipping his long drink, and a bartender (“Do you want it with or without ice?”). Oh no, of course I was wrong - the man in the hat who looks like Humphrey Bogart and the woman in the red blouse are not husband and wife. Rather it is - secret lovers, or... Isn't the man on the left a mirror double of the first? The options multiply, the plot grows out of the understatement, as happens while walking around the city, looking into open windows, eavesdropping on snippets of conversations. Unfinished movements, unclear meanings, uncertain colors. A performance that we are not watching from the beginning and are unlikely to see its ending. At best, it is one of the actions. Untalented actors and a completely useless director.
It’s as if we are peeking through a crack into someone else’s unremarkable life, but so far nothing is happening - but does something happen so often in ordinary life? I often imagine that someone is watching my life from afar - here I am sitting in a chair, here I got up, poured tea - nothing more - upstairs they are probably yawning from boredom - no meaning or plot. But to create a plot, you simply need an external, detached observer, cutting off unnecessary things and introducing additional meanings - this is how photographs and films are born. Or rather, the internal logic of the images itself gives rise to the plot.
Edward Hopper. "Hotel Window"
Perhaps what we see in Hopper's paintings is just an imitation of reality. Perhaps this is the world of mannequins. A world from which life has been removed - like the creatures in the bottles of the Zoological Museum, or stuffed deer, of which only the outer shells remain. Sometimes Hopper's paintings frighten me with this monstrous emptiness, the absolute vacuum that shines through behind every stroke. The path into absolute emptiness, begun by “Black Square”, ended with “Hotel Window”. The only thing that prevents Hopper from being called a complete nihilist is precisely this fantastic light from the outside, these unfinished gestures of the characters, emphasizing the atmosphere of mysterious anticipation of the most important event that does not happen. It seems to me that Dino Buzzati and his “Tatar Desert” can be considered a literary analogue of Hopper’s work. Throughout the entire novel, absolutely nothing happens, but the atmosphere of delayed action permeates the entire novel - and in anticipation of great events, you read the novel to the end, but nothing happens. Painting is much more laconic than literature, and the entire novel can be illustrated with just one painting by Hopper, “People in the Sun.”
Edward Hopper. "People in the Sun"
Hopper's paintings become a kind of proof to the contrary - this is how medieval philosophers tried to determine the qualities of God. The presence of darkness itself proves the existence of light. Perhaps Hopper is doing the same thing - showing a gray and boring world, he is doing just this action of subtraction negative qualities hints at the existence of other realities that cannot be reflected by means available to painting. Or, in the words of Emil Cioran, “we cannot imagine eternity in any other way except by eliminating everything that happens, everything that is measurable for us.”
And yet, Hopper’s paintings are united by one plot, not only within the framework of the artist’s biography. In their sequence, they represent a series of images that an angel spy would see, flying over the world, looking into the windows of office skyscrapers, entering houses invisible, spying on our unremarkable life. This is how America is, seen through the eyes of an angel, with its endless roads, endless deserts, oceans, streets along which you can study the classical perspective. AND actors, a little like mannequins from the nearest supermarket, a little like people in their little solitude in the middle of a big bright world, blown by all the winds.