Edward Hopper was an American painter born on 22 July 1882, in Nyack, a small town some 25 miles north of New York. He died on 15 May 1967, age 84, in New York.
Hopper initially enrolled at the Correspondence School of Illustrating in New York in 1900, but in 1901 swapped to the New York School of Art, where his tutors included Robert Henri. In 1913 he rented the top floor apartment where he would live for the rest of his life: 3 Washington Square North, in the Greenwich Village part of New York.
Hopper supported himself through his commercial illustration work and printmaking for a long time; by the age of 40, he'd sold only one painting. Then in 1923 the Brooklyn Museum bought a watercolor, The Mansard Roof, for US$100, and set him on the road to living from his fine art.
Hopper painted scenes from modern life that are stark and timeless. His style was representational, but not photorealistic; he composed the scenes in his paintings, selecting only the essential. His sketchbooks show that he considered various compositions before starting a painting. Many of Hopper's paintings have a melancholy atmosphere to them, despair in modern city life. His people (when they appear) have a distinctive feel to them too.
"The Hopper formula -- if it can be called that -- is about 70 percent common sense (fidelity to the subject, but no extraneous details) and 30 percent subdued lyricism."1
Hopper "evokes the sentimental spirit of Expressionism to imbue each setting with a mood that seems to emanate from the disposition of his figures or inanimate subjects, yet the practice remains centered about and motivated by the narrative content of a picture".2
