EDWARD HOPPER: artist quotes and biography facts of the painter on painting, life, philosophy and his ideas on modern American Realism
EDWARD HOPPER (1882 – 1967) was the great artist painter of ‘American life’ and probably the most famous modern Realism painter in America. In his quotes Hopper tells his biography facts about life, art style, his philosophy and ideas on painting Realism. Hopper made several long stays in Paris and it was Paris the artist city which influenced him so strongly, Impressionism the most, In 1962 he called himself ‘still an Impressionist’! Hoppers most famous painting is probably Nighthawks, see the picture here. At the bottom more biography facts and information on Edward Hopper, with useful art links for his painting art (ed: Fons Heijnsbroek)
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Edward Hopper: ‘Nighthawks’, oil painting, 1943 |
EDWARD HOPPER, 21 artist quotes on his painting style of American Realism, his life philosophy and technique
- Paris is a very graceful and beautiful city, almost too formal and sweet tot the taste after the raw disorder of New York. Everything seems to have been planned with the purpose of forming a most harmonious whole, which certainly has been done… …Every street here is alive with all sorts of conditions of people, priests, nuns, students, and always the little soldiers with wide red pants.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- The people here in fact seem to live in the streets, which are alive from morning until night, not as they are in New York with that never-ending determination for the “long-green”, but with a pleasure-loving crowd that doesn’t care what it does or where it goes, so that it has a good time.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- Everyone goes to the “Grands-Boulevards” and let himself loose… …Do not picture these in costume, they are not for the most part… …perhaps a clown with a big nose, or two girls with bare necks and short skirts… …the parade of the queens of the halls (markets) is also one of the events… …Some are pretty but look awkward in their silk dresses and crowns, particularly as the broad sun displays their defects – perhaps a neck too thin or a painted face which shows ghastley white in the sunlight.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- I could just go a few steps (from the place where he stayed in Paris in 1906- 1907, fh) and I’d see the Louvre across the river. From the corner of the rue de Bac and Lille (sic) you could see Sacré-Coeur. It hung like a great vision in the air above the city.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- It seemed awful crude and raw here when I got back (after he returned from his third and last trip to Europe, in 1910, fh). It took me ten years to get over Europe.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- Partly through choice, I was never willing to hire out more than three days a week (making illustrations for the magazines to support himself, fh) I kept some time to do my own work. Illustrating was a depressing experience. And I didn’t get very good prices because I didn’t often do what they wanted.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- After I took up etchings (in 1915, fh), my paintings seemed to crystallize.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- John Sloan (an American colleague artist who started his art by making illustrations, fh) not having been abroad, has seen these things with a truer and fresher eye than most… …The hard early training has given to Sloan a facility and a power of invention that the pure painter seldom achieves.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- At Gloucester (village at the sea where Hopper with his wife Jo had married and stayed during the summer of 1924, fh) when everyone else would be painting ships and the waterfront I’d just go around looking at houses (watercolor: ‘Haskell’s house, 1924). It is a solid looking town. The roofs are very bold, the cornices bolder. The dormers cast very positive shadows. The sea captain influence I guess – the boldness of ships.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- ..the great painters, with their intellect as master, have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record of their emotions (remark of 1933).
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- The idea (for the painting ‘Room in New York’, 1932, fh) had been in my mind a long time before I painted it. It was suggested by glimpses of lighted interiors seen as I walked along city streets at night, probably near the district where I live (Washington Square, New York, fh) although it’s no particular street or house, but is really a synthesis of many impressions.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- I was always interested in architecture, but the editors (of the magazines Hopper made his illustrations for, fh) wanted people waving with their arms.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- So much of every art is an expression of the subconscious that it seems to me most of all the important qualities are put there unconsciously, and little of importance by the conscious intellect. But these are things for the psychologist to untangle.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- The only quality that endures in art is a personal vision of the world. Methods are transient: personality is enduring.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world… …The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- Jo, his wife, remarked on Hopper’s painting ‘Cape Cod morning’, 1950: ‘It is a woman looking out to see if the weather is good enough to hang out her wash’. Hopper reacted: ‘did I say that? You’re making it Norman Rockwell. From my point of view she’s just looking out the window, just looking out the window’.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- Just to paint a representation or design is not hard, but to express a thought in painting is. Thought is fluid. What you put on canvas is concrete, and it tends to direct the thought. The more you punt on canvas the more you lose control of the thought. I’ve never been able to paint what I set out to paint.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- I do not exactly know, unless it is that I believe them (his chosen subjects in his paintings above all other possible subject, fh) to be the best mediums for a synthesis of my inner experience.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- I am after ME (his response on the question what he was after in his sober painting in 1963 ‘Sun in an empty room’, fh) .
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- To me the most important thing is the sense of going on. You know how beautiful things are when you’re traveling.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- It’s (the lack of communication between the people in his paintings, fh) probably a reflection of my own, if I may say, loneliness. I don’t know. It could be the whole human condition.
* Edward Hopper, source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
- Ninety percent of them (artists in general, fh) are forgotten ten minutes after they’re dead.
* source of his artist quotes on painting and technique, art theory and philosophy: a letter to Margaret McKellar, 14 November 1965; as quoted in “Edward Hopper”, Gail Levin, Bonfini Press, Switzerland 1984, p. 80 ( famous painter of American life, creating his painting art in a modern realism style; more biography facts below)
not sourced artist quotes by the painter Edward Hopper
- I think I’m still an impressionist (artist quote Hopper, in 1962)
biography notes on the famous American Realism painter artist Edward Hopper
Edward Hopper was and still is probably the most famous Realism painter of twentieth century America. He stayed in Paris for several times during his starting years as a young painter and made during his stays series of impressionistic little paintings of the houses and streets in Paris in brown and umber colors. He admired impressionist French painters like Degas, but also older masters as the Dutch painter Vermeer, and more classical realist artists.
Back in America it was a hard job for Hopper to feel himself at home again. He had to work as an illustrator for several magazines to earn his money. When he was 42 Hopper became successful in selling his own paintings; he could effort to stop his illustrator jobs and to focus completely on panting.
His paintings of persons in interiors are in fact spare compositions with only a few details and just slight suggestions of symbolic or emotional content. The subconscious was an important area for Hopper as a source for his painting art.. Moreover he painted a lot of American landscapes and city-scenes.
Hopper started already to sign and to date his early drawings as a boy of ten. In 1899 he studied illustrations, and one year later already he enrolled the New York School of Art. He had his first stay in Paris during 1906 – 1907; he would have three important stays in this city and returned definitely in 1911. In 1913 he entered one oil painting in the famous New York ‘Armery Show’, which was over-shadowed by the European avant-garde artist, but nevertheless Hopper sold his work!
In 1920 Hopper had his first one-man show, in the Whitney Studio Club showing primarily his French paintings. It was in 1921 that Hopper began to focus on female figures in domestic interior settings, a theme which would become his most important theme for the rest of his life. His wife Jo was almost always his model and scarcely allowed other women to serve as model. Hopper became very old; he painted till 1963. He managed to finish his last famous painting ‘Two Comedians’ in 1965, despite his illness.
links for more biography information on the greatest painter in American Realism painting, Edward Hopper
* the biography of the painter Edward Hopper, on Wikipedia
* many images and pictures of the paintings of Edward Hopper, on Google
* the famous painter Edward Hopper at the National Gallery of Art, Washington
* Scrapbook of Edward Hopper’s work and life, the Smithsonian American Art Museum
* the famous painter Edward Hopper at the National Gallery of Art, Washington
* Scrapbook of Edward Hopper’s work and life, the Smithsonian American Art Museum
