" He advised his students, among them Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent, to live with the common man and paint the common man, in total opposition to Cecilia Beaux ’ s artistic methods and subjects.

Hopper ’ s parents encouraged his art and kept him amply supplied with materials, instructional magazines, and illustrated books.

Hopper ’ s parents insisted that he study commercial art to have a reliable means of income.

He also advised his students, “ It isn ’ t the subject that counts but what you feel about it ” and “ Forget about art and paint pictures of what interests you in life .” In this manner, Henri influenced Hopper, as well as notable future artists George Bellows and Rockwell Kent.

It comes slowly .” His fellow illustrator Walter Tittle described Hopper ’ s depressed emotional state in sharper terms, seeing his friend “ suffering … from long periods of unconquerable inertia, sitting for days at a time before his easel in helpless unhappiness, unable to raise a hand to break the spell .” In 1912, Hopper traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, to seek some inspiration and did his first outdoor paintings in America.

Shortly after his father ’ s death that same year, Hopper moved to the Washington Square apartment in the Greenwich Village section of New York City where he would live for the rest of his life.

By 1923, Hopper ’ s slow climb finally produced a breakthrough.

With Nivison ’ s help, six of Hopper ’ s Gloucester watercolors were admitted to an exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in 1923.

Though Hopper claimed that he didn ’ t consciously embed psychological meaning in his paintings, he was deeply interested in Freud and the power of the subconscious mind.

The effective use of light and shadow to create mood is also central to Hopper ’ s methods.

Though a realist painter, Hopper ’ s “ soft ” realism simplified shapes and details.

Hopper ’ s seascapes fall into three main groups: pure landscapes of rocks, sea, and beach grass ; lighthouses and farmhouses ; and sailboats.

Hopper ’ s The Long Leg ( 1935 ) is a nearly all-blue sailing picture with the simplest of elements, while his Ground Swell ( 1939 ) is more complex and depicts a group of youngsters out for a sail, a theme reminiscent of Winslow Homer ’ s iconic Breezing Up ( 1876 ).

It marked Hopper ’ s artistic maturity.

Hopper ’ s solitary figures are mostly women — dressed, semi-clad, and nude — often reading or looking out a window, or in the workplace.

The inspiration for the picture may have come from Ernest Hemingway ’ s short story The Killers, which Hopper greatly admired, or from the more philosophical A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.

After his student years, Hopper ’ s nudes were all female.

Hopper ’ s wife, as usual, posed for him for the painting, and noted in her diary, “ Ed beginning a new canvas — a burlesque queen doing a strip tease — and I posing without a stitch on in front of the stove —- nothing but high heels in a lottery dance pose .”

Hopper did produce a commissioned “ portrait ” of a house, The MacArthurs ’ Home ( 1939 ), where he faithfully details the Victorian architecture of the home of actress Helen Hayes.

Though very interested in the American Civil War and Mathew Brady ’ s battlefield photographs, Hopper made only two historical pictures.

The best example of an action painting is Bridle Path ( 1939 ), but Hopper ’ s struggle with the proper anatomy of the horses may have discouraged him from similar attempts.

Hopper ’ s final oil painting, Two Comedians ( 1966 ), painted one year before his death, focuses on his love of the theater.

When Jo Hopper commented on the figure in Cape Cod Morning “ It ’ s a woman looking out to see if the weather ’ s good enough to hang out her wash ,” Hopper retorted, “ Did I say that?

Bright sunlight ( as an emblem of insight or revelation ), and the shadows it casts, also play symbolically powerful roles in Hopper paintings such as Early Sunday Morning ( 1930 ), Summertime ( 1943 ), Seven A. M. ( 1948 ), and Sun in an Empty Room ( 1963 ).

Though critics and viewers interpret meaning and mood in these cityscapes, Hopper insisted “ I was more interested in the sunlight on the buildings and on the figures than any symbolism .” As if to prove the point, his late painting Sun in an Empty Room ( 1963 ) is a pure study of sunlight.

As Hopper scholar Gail Levin wrote of “ Hotel Room ”:

Canadian rock group The Weakerthans released their album Reunion Tour in 2007 featuring two songs inspired by and named after Hopper paintings, " Sun in an Empty Room ", and " Night Windows ", and have also referenced him in songs such as " Hospital Vespers ".

Hopper also undertook alterations to the Library and the Billiard Room in the east wing, including raising the ceiling heights by two feet.

* " Citizen Hopper ," interview with C. Hodenfield, in Film Comment ( New York ) Nov / Dec.

* " Sean Penn ," interview with Julian Schnabel and Dennis Hopper, Interview ( New York ) Sept. 1991

* Burke, Tom, " Dennis Hopper Saves the Movies ," in Esquire ( New York ), Dec. 1970

The New York Times ' obituary of Thayer on August 22, 1940, p. 19 quotes comedian DeWolf Hopper, who helped make the poem famous:

Hopper was born Grace Brewster Murray in New York City.

* American ( U. S. A .)— Hopper, Edward: Two Comedians ( 1966 ); Longo, Robert: Pressure ( 1982 / 83 ); Nauman, Bruce: No No New Museum ( 1987 ; videotape ); Serrano, Andres: A History of Sex ( Head ) ( 1996 ).

Hopper was born in upper Nyack, New York, a yacht-building center on the Hudson River north of New York City.

After returning from his last European trip, Hopper rented a studio in New York City, where he struggled to define his own style.

At an impasse over his oil paintings, in 1915 Hopper turned to etching, producing about 70 works, many of urban scenes of both Paris and New York.

When he could, Hopper did some outdoor watercolors on visits to New England, especially at the art colonies at Ogunquit, Maine, and Monhegan Island.

His Two on the Aisle ( 1927 ) sold for a personal record $ 1, 500, enabling Hopper to purchase an automobile, which he used to make field trips to remote areas of New England.

Hopper was very productive through the 1930s and early 1940s, producing among many important works New York Movie ( 1939 ), Girlie Show ( 1941 ), Nighthawks ( 1942 ), Hotel Lobby ( 1943 ), and Morning in a City ( 1944 ).

Hopper died in his studio near Washington Square in New York City on May 15, 1967.

Other significant paintings by Hopper are held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Des Moines Art Center, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

For New York Movie ( 1939 ), Hopper demonstrates his thorough preparation with more than 53 sketches of the theater interior and the figure of the pensive usherette.

In the early 1920s, Hopper painted his first such pictures Girl at Sewing Machine ( 1921 ), New York Interior ( another woman sewing ) ( 1921 ), and Moonlight Interior ( a nude getting into bed ) ( 1923 ).

Charles Burchfield, whom Hopper admired and whom he was compared to, said of Hopper, “ he achieves such a complete verity that you can read into his interpretations of houses and conceptions of New York life any human implications you wish .” He also attributed Hopper ’ s success to his “ bold individualism … In him we have regained that sturdy American independence which Thomas Eakins gave us, but which for a time was lost .” Hopper considered this a high compliment since he considered Eakins the greatest American painter.

To establish the lighting of scenes in the 2002 film Road to Perdition, director Sam Mendes drew from the paintings of Hopper as a source of inspiration, particularly New York Movie.

In 2010, the Fondation de l ' Hermitage museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, held an exhibition that covered Hopper ’ s entire career, with works drawn largely from the Whitney Museum in New York City.