Print authentication:Edward Hopper
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by Edward Hopper.
Evening Wind. 1921. Etching
Edward Hopper was an American painter and printmaker born in Upper Nyack, New York. Hopper moved to Manhattan in 1899 to study at the New York School of Art and Design, under the tutelage of William Merritt Chase.
Night Shadow. 1921. Etching. Metropolitan Museum of Art
While Hopper was struggling to gain recognition as an artist during his early years, he began producing a number of etchings. After teaching himself the etching process in 1915, Hopper created a strong portfolio of 26 published prints. From 1918 to 1923, Hopper received a number of awards for his graphic work, which helped him promote his watercolors and oil paintings.
East Side Interior. 1922. Etching
Summer Twilight. 1920. Etching. Philadelphia Musuem of Art
The Locomotive. 1923. Etching
His etchings depict everyday scenes, such as passengers riding the train at night, or solitary women sitting on their beds or gazing out the window. His etchings have strong shadows and are often set at night or twilight hours.
As Hopper’s popularity grew, he focused more on oil painting that etching and watercolors. His early etchings, however, show Hopper’s strong sense of composition. He was able to convey the collective feeling of the country during a terrible economic depression.
Despite the fact that it was not easy to be an artist during the Great Depression, Hopper was eventually able to sell a number of his works to the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
During the mid-1930s, Hopper and his wife built a second home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Many of Hopper’s later works were inspired by the New England landscape.
After Hopper’s death, most of his work was given to the Whitney Museum of American Art. Hopper’s etchings from the 1920s continue to hold great value and are collected by museums, libraries and private collectors internationally.