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Artwork-Vault > Biographies of famous painters > E. Hopper
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Edward Hopper

Full Name: Edward Hopper.
Birth: 1882, New York.
Death: 1967, New York.
Style: American Realism.

Edward Hopper was an American painter of the modernist period, known for capturing like no one else the solitude and suspended calm of urban life. A master of American Realism, he transformed everyday scenes —an empty gas station, a diner lit at dawn, a window open to silence— into reflections on modern existence. His work doesn’t just show buildings or figures: it reveals the space between them, that moment when time seems to stop and the soul looks inward.

He grew up in a middle-class, matriarchal household in the state of New York. From an early age, both parents encouraged his artistic development, providing him with the materials he needed to learn and create his works.

At the age of 17, Hopper began studying painting through a correspondence course, which soon led to his admission to the New York School of Art and Design. Even then, he admired the fathers of Impressionism, an admiration that later extended to much of European art up to the Renaissance. Avant-garde and more contemporary movements such as Modernism or Cubism seemed to interest him very little.

Despite making many trips to Europe to continue his studies and painting, Hopper stood out greatly from the artists around him. The final style he adopted resembled neither the classics he studied nor the painters who surrounded him; instead, he proposed an entirely new form of painting, close to realism, depicting city scenes, cafés, interiors, and meaningful landscapes.

Gaining fame was not easy for Hopper. Many times he relied on his great skill as an illustrator to work for publishers or fulfill commissioned work. Although he did not enjoy this technique, the extensive practice undoubtedly brought him great advantages in his drawing ability.

Hopper Paintings

Hopper’s works are descriptive and meticulously crafted in every detail: lighting, characters, psychology, and setting. Reluctant to answer questions about himself and his art, when asked once he said: “The answer to everything is on the canvas…”

Nighthawks, Hopper

1. Nighthawks

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Nighthawks
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1942
Subject: City life
Located: Instituto de Arte de Chicago

Depicts the night in a New York bar and its last customers. The work was an American icon for the young people of the time. The image clearly shows the loneliness of the big city and of modern existence.

House by the Railroad, Hopper

2. House by the Railroad

Author: Edward Hopper
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1925
Located: MoMA museum, New York.

In the artist's compositions, it is very common to find a horizontal dividing element, which sharply separates the observer from the world present within the painting. In this case, he uses a train track for the purpose.

With this, according to experts, he makes the work impenetrable, establishing a dividing line that further enhances solitude and melancholy.


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Chop Suey, Hopper

3. Chop Suey

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Chop Suey
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1929
Subject: City life

Work inspired by the urban environment of the United States in the 1920s. Two friends are seen having tea and chatting, dressed in the typical attire of the time.

"Chop Suey" is a dish from Chinese-American cuisine that became popular in the United States at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and was commonly found in Chinese restaurants and diners throughout the United States during the '20s and beyond.

Hotel Room, Hopper

4. Hotel Room

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Hotel Room
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1931
Subject: City life
Located: Thyssen Museum, Madrid.

The work shows a woman sitting on the bed in her hotel room, evoking the loneliness and coldness of the morning, a very frequent inspiration in the artist.

Morning Sun, Hopper

5. Morning Sun

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Morning Sun
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1952
Subject: City life
Located: Museo de Arte de Columbus, USA

The work conveys the loneliness of a woman on her bed, receiving the morning sun rays and looking melancholically through the window.

Rooms by the Sea, Hopper

6. Rooms by the Sea

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Rooms by the Sea
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1951
Subject: Seascapes

The work is based on the view from his own summer studio in the city of Massachusetts, where he honed his technique for painting light effects. His interest in painting these types of contrasts accompanied him from the beginning of his artistic career.

Automat, Hopper

7. Automat

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Automat
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1927
Subject: City life
Located: Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, USA

It shows a woman in a café in front of a large window, through which the city's night lighting can be seen.

Early Sunday Morning, Hopper

8. Early Sunday Morning

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Early Sunday Morning
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1930
Located: Museo Whitney de Arte Estadounidense, New York
Shows an urban landscape devastated, formed by a low building in vibrant tones: green and red. The abandoned city, the static landscape, and the colors, remind of the painting Gas, and the series of "railways". Few like Hopper adorn with generous realistic details while consolidating an art of such a peaceful character.
New York, New Haven and Hartford, Hopper

9. New York, New Haven and Hartford

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: New York, New Haven and Hartford
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1931
Subject: Rural
Located: The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), USA

The artist surprises once again with the characteristic warmth of his compositions: two rural cabins at the foot of the track, bushes, and small trees enveloped by the first rays of the morning, which reveal only their silhouette.

Light at Two Lights, Hopper

10. Light at Two Lights

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Light at Two Lights
Type: Painting
Medium Watercolor and Pencil
Support: Paper
Year: 1927
Genre: Seascapes
Located: Museo Whitney de Arte Estadounidense, New York
Work in watercolor and pencil titled Lighthouse at Two Lights, painted by Edward Hopper in 1927. The reproduction we offer for sale is in oil on canvas.

Belongs to the artist's earliest artistic stage, this particular one is an exercise in perspective and geometric composition. The techniques of lighting, coloring, and arrangement of elements were powerfully developed throughout his career, examples of this are the works: Cape Cod Afternoon (similar perspective) and Ground Swell (similar treatment of light).

Ground Swell, Hopper

11. Ground Swell

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Ground Swell
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1939
Genre: Seascapes
Located: Galería de Arte Corcoran, Washington

Sports marina, shows a group of young people sailing a yacht in the swell. A very recognizable feature of his style is the clarity he attributes to sunny days in his canvases; as usual, there is no sun or rays, only the enveloping effect of both.

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Gas, Hopper

12. Gas

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Gas
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1940
Subject: Life in the suburbs
Located: MoMA museum, New York.
The painting displays a classic American road-side gas station from the 1950s. The man's attire, a suit and tie (as was often the custom in those years), stands out, as does the absence of the element that would complete the concept, in this case: cars. As is usual in Hopper's works, for example: Four-lane Highway (without cars) or House by the Train Tracks (without people or train).
The Long Leg, Hopper

13. The Long Leg

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: The Long Leg
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1930
Genre: Seascapes
Located: Galería de la Biblioteca Huntington, California

Marine scene where a sailing boat and the sea can be seen against a backdrop of a small beach town. The work is considered an aesthetic model of art that blends sports imagery and landscape.

Two on the Aisle, Hopper

14. Two on the Aisle

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Two on the Aisle
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1927
Subject: City life
Located: The Toledo Museum of Art, USA

Hopper is the modern specialist in conferring intensity and psychological complexity to the most ordinary moments. The viewer immerses themselves in the carefully composed scenes, identifying with or thinking about the characters, who usually appear isolated.

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Hotel Lobby, Hopper

15. Hotel Lobby

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Hotel Lobby
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1943
Subject: City life
Located: The Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), USA

The work presents three guests waiting, each in their own way, in the grid-like hotel reception; the charmless lobby is struck by the intricate vitality of the characters.

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Cape Cod Afternoon, Hopper

16. Cape Cod Afternoon

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Cape Cod Afternoon
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1936
Subject: Rural
Located: CMOA, Carnegie Museum of Art, USA

It displays the sunset in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA. The artist captures the warm green and yellow tones that the sun reflects on the landscape of houses and vegetation.

Office at Night, Hopper

17. Office at Night

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Office at Night
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1940
Subject: City life
Located: Walker Art Center, Minnesota

The canvas displays a North American office scene from the 1930s, in which people are still working. The artist aims to highlight the frivolity of the New York urban customs of the time.

Room in New York, Hopper

18. Room in New York

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Room in New York
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1932
Subject: City life
Located: Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln (Nebraska)

Portrays, in his particular bohemian style, a social scene characteristic of the 1920s in the United States.

Four Lane Road, Hopper

19. Four Lane Road

Author: Edward Hopper
Original Title: Four Lane Road
Type: Painting
Medium Oil
Support: Canvas
Year: 1956
Subject: Life in the suburbs
Work in the painter's last artistic stage, two characters, husband and wife, appear as managers of a typical American gas station in the middle of nowhere. Lengthening the hours waiting for ephemeral customers. The same type of fuel dispenser is seen in the canvas lienzo "Gas". Currently, it is part of a private collection and is not on public display.
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