Edward Hopper1995
portraits of America
by Wieland Schmied
Edward Hopper was one of the finest American Scene painters in the Realist tradition. His passion was to portray "typical America"; his city- and landscapes are vivid reflections of the then contemporary American life. Several of his paintings, such as House by the Railroad (1925), Early Sunday Morning (1930), and Nighthawks (1942), have become icons of modern American art. They depict the loneliness, anonymity, and lack of variety in the daily life of ordinary people.
Edward Hopper: Portraits of America examines the apparent dichotomy within Hopper's oeuvre. On the one hand, his compositions depict deserted small towns or solitary figures in empty offices, desolate houses, or hotel rooms. On the other hand, Hopper painted the landscape of New England, where he spent almost every summer...