Methodist Church Tower, 1930

© 2023 Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT / The Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 1951.19

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About the Artist

Edward Hopper (b. July 22, 1882, Nyack, N.Y., U.S. — d. May 15, 1967, New York, N.Y.) was an American painter. He was initially trained as an illustrator but later studied painting with Robert Henri. In 1913 he exhibited in the Armory Show but spent much of his time on advertising art and illustrative etchings. In the mid 1920s he turned to watercolours and oil paintings of urban life. His House by the Railroad (1925) and Room in Brooklyn (1932) depict still, anonymous figures within geometric building forms, producing the haunting sense of isolation that was to be his hallmark. He used light to isolate figures and objects, as in Early Sunday Morning (1930) and Nighthawks (1942). His mature style was already formed in the 1920s; his later development showed constant refinement and an even greater mastery of light.