Edward Hopper (1882-1967) was an American realist artist, known mainly for his oil paintings.
Hopper was a native of New York City and a student of the New York School of Art and Design, where he was influenced by Impressionism. He did illustration and wood-etching for some years after leaving school while developing his career, which had a decisive turning point: meeting and marrying the artist Josephine Nivison, who became his assistant, frequent model, and confidant. With her help, he gained further recognition as an artist, eventually producing some of his most well-known work in the '30s and '40s.
He liked to paint everyday settings (streets, diners, gas stations, motels) as well as the people who lived and moved through them. His style is characterized by saturated colors, a focus on architecture, brusque strokes instead of fine details, and a sense of melancholia and isolation in its subjects. He also did the occasional landscape. And being a movie lover, his works are inspired by movie stills, and filmmakers in turn pay homage to his paintings.
His most famous work is Nighthawks (1942), the Trope Maker for the "Nighthawks" Shot.
Tropes in his work:
- Chiaroscuro: Frequently used light/dark contrast in his work to emphasize melancholy and isolation. In Nighthawks, for example, the fluorescent light of the diner contrasts with the shadows outside.
- Drama Panes: Urban isolation and transience were big themes in Hopper's art, and people staring outside windows were a recurring subject.
- In Morning Sun
a woman in side profile lets the sun shine across her body as she looks out at a window. - In Eleven AM◊ a seemingly nude woman gazes contemplatively out a window.
- In Cape Cod Morning a woman greets the day by staring out of her large bay windows.
- In Morning Sun
- Office Romance: Several visual cues in Office at Night imply a relationship of some sort between the man at the desk and the standing woman, including her suggestive pose, the notion that they are just about to interact, and the curtain stirring.
- Red/Green Contrast: A go-to color scheme for Hopper, who liked saturated colors.
- Chop Suey: The central woman's bright green dress and the greenish window panels and highlights on her companion against the bright red of the restaurant sign.
- The shops in Early Sunday Morning: The second floor is red and the first floor is green. The contrast is more obvious due to the lack of humans visiting them.
- Red and green are the dominant colors in Western Motel:
- Scenery Porn: Had a penchant for capturing the East Coast's vibrant blue waters in his seascapes, such as in Lee Shore and Grounds Well.
- Textile Work Is Feminine: Girl At Sewing Machine (1921) shows a young, brunette woman hard at work sewing something.
