An Analysis of Edward Hopper's Style of Painting

I chose a work of art in page 368. The swing, Figure 12.25, paintings by Jean-Honore Fragonard in 1766. which show the frivolous sexual escapades of the members of the French aristocratic class in the mid-eightteeth century. The painting is done in pre-French Revolution era. When the elite was enjoying the worry free lifestyle; which is full of love, lust, and wealthy social life, exquisite clothing. This is clearly shows in this picture, The swing. Medium in this painting is Oil paint. The positive area of this art work is the aristocratic women who is enjoying the swing. The natural patterns in this painting is the freshness that come from the trees and leaves around the women.

Nighthawks, was painted in 1942 by Edward Hopper (1882-1967) an artist who was known as “a great master in the ranks of America realists.” (Levin, Gail) Hoppers paintings were first hung in “retrospective in 1933, Hopper played host just three years later to the first major show of surrealist art in New york.” (Levin, Gail) Hopper grew up in Washington Square, and lived there for most of his life. “ Hopper excelled in creating realistic pictures of clear-cut, sunlit streets and houses, often without figures.” (Levin, Gail) “He offers a brand of realism not bound to reality, and the places he depicts are familiar and foreign, comfortable and disquieting,” said the USA Times. The painting resides in the Art institute of Chicago. Nighthawks just like many of Hoppers paintings give a feeling of loneliness, and isolation as well as a feeling of darkness due to the dark hues. The picture leaves the viewer with thousands of words and interpretations with a third person view of an isolated man as he sits in a small parlor and ponders. The painting was created in 1942, which took place during the time of the great depression.

“Edward Hopper said that Nighthawks was inspired by ‘a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet.’” (About This Artwork, Nighthawks, p.1) Hopper had many inspirations for this painting, however, through events in his life, such as venues he had visited, and the era of art for which he was involved. Hopper was born in 1882, and he studied at the New York School of Art from 1900 to 1906, and he studied and worked in the fine arts. During the first part of his art career, Hopper was an illustrator who traveled around Europe, gaining inspiration from the areas he visited, as well as gain more knowledge to increase his skills in creating artworks. At first, he struggled to sell his artwork and create a name for himself so he could become more popular; even after he returned to the United States he had difficulties.

Ferdinand Loyen du Puigaudeau was a French Impressionist, so his paintings were created in the Impressionism movement. Impressionism is where the artists would want to capture a moment of any time a day and to focus on weather conditions. The most popular paintings from the Impressionism movement are landscapes. The artists would paint by doing light brushing strokes and use bright colors. The impressionists were the first group to embrace painting outside.

Café Terrace at Night was the first painting that Van Gogh painted where he used a nocturnal background. Using contrasting colors and tones, unlike Nighthawk which used complementary colors, Van Gogh was able to achieve a luminous surface with an interior light. Because of the brightness of the luminous surface Van Gogh manage to brighten up the painting with bright yellow stars that appear to make the sky glow, alongside the lights that pour out of the cafe making it attention-grabbing. Likewise with Nighthawks with its illuminate diner which shows similarities in their lighting. The lines of composition is also different from Nighthawk which its lines were very straight and rectangular, the composition in this piece points to the center of the work drawing the viewer's eye along the pavement as if it were strolling the streets. Van Gogh was able to recreated the setting directly from his observation, again similar to Hopper when he used the Greenwich Village diner as inspiration for his work.

Edward was born on July 22, 1882 in Nyack, New York. At a young age Hopper had great talent for the art. His parents supported Hopper and did everything in their power to help Hopper stay in this path. Especially his mother whom had an artistic background, she encouraged Hopper at a young age to draw. By the time he was teenager he was showing great potentiation in many areas of art media, using pen and ink, watercolor and oil. Hopper started off his art career as an illustrator and gradually he became involved with painting. He would have much of his great successes with painting than he ever had with illustration. He would go on to say, “Illustrating was a depressing experience, And I didn’t get a very good prices because I didn’t often do what they wanted “ (19) which would be a great indication why he felt he needed to become a full

by Emerson. Just as Emerson sat in solitude while exploring his thoughts about the importance of self-reliance, Hopper did the same thing by depicted scenes of introspection and reflection. Edward Hopper is often refereed as “the major twentieth-century American ‘realist’ and one of the giants of the American painting.” During the outset of his career, his style lacked the American aesthetic. Whirl he was studying at the New York School of Art and Design, he built a relationship with his professor and fellow realist artist Robert Henri. When Hopper enrolled into the school, Henri had already become the leading teacher there. However, Henri being an American nationalist painter, he educated in France, where he encouraged his students to travel

proper geometric shapes.Edward Hopper’s paintings usually center on the same theme: isolation. This is a

Edward Hopper’s first paintings were architectures and typically American urban landscapes, buildings, streets, almost empty squares, gas stations on isolated roads,

Impressionism is a new kind of painting that captures a fleeting moment in time. Whether it be moving people doing daily activities or water shimmering on the lake. During the 1800s, impressionism was a drastic break in the history of art. It is also described as a revolution because it broke away from the average paintings that consisted of history and mythology. The artists could paint what they saw through their own eyes and could use their own techniques. The history of art went from classical paintings to modern, weird paintings. All of the artists had the idea that it was time for them to paint what they saw through their own eyes.

The selection from Leon Battista Alberti’s On painting is mainly divided into 5 paragraphs numbered 25 through 29. Just as the title suggests, the text deals with the art of painting and its virtues. It talks about the benefits painting offers to the artist and why they are valuable, as well as showing the importance a work of art gives to the object being painted. While referring to many examples in history, Alberti also compares painting to the other “crafts” and explains why it is more noble, as well as more enjoyable and self-satisfactory.

The Impressionist period describes a group of painters living in Paris France between approximately 1867 and 1886. Although the Impressionists ' acquired their name in 1874, the Impressionists ' techniques developed during the late 1860s. This group of painters was differentiated by breaking away from the strict academic thoughts on painting, liberating themselves from the rules and traditions of the painters of the time. Impressionist focused less on achieving perfectly finished and realistic works of art, and focused more on portraying their immediate impressions of daily scenes. They sought to objectively record reality in terms of moving light and color instead of the traditional stationary light and single focal point used at the time. The Impressionists didn’t feel the need to paint based on a story or historical subjects, they instead took their easels outdoors painting scenes of modern life, and daily middle-class activities, observing nature in a way that was impossible while working in the confines of a traditional studio. They used thick layers of oil paint, often having visible rough brush strokes which gave the appearance of being quickly painted. These original Impressionists artists were rejected by the government sponsored exhibitions, or salons, and began holding their own independent show in 1874. Because of this independence they faced strong resistance from the conventional art community in France. The name Impressionism is draw from the title of a

"A picture can paint a thousand words." I found the one picture in my mind that does paint a thousand words and more. It was a couple of weeks ago when I saw this picture in the writing center; the writing center is part of State College. The beautiful colors caught my eye. I was so enchanted by the painting, I lost the group I was with. When I heard about the observation essay, where we have to write about a person or thing in the city that catches your eye. I knew right away that I wanted to write about the painting. I don’t know why, but I felt that the painting was describing the way I felt at that moment.

By the year 1863 the sentry which allows the visual messages transmitted by the eye to penetrate to the brain only after a rigorous censorship, had admitted most aspects of visual truth, but there were two that had not yet officially passed the censor. They were (1) the colour and vibration of light and (2) the density of air. No one had ever painted the true colour of sunshine and shadow, and hardly anyone had thought it worthwhile to suggest that the density of the air is not always constant, that a picture could be painted, for instance, of a landscape seen through a heavy mist or fog.

Hopper was considered a realist type of artist. His imagery of figures within urban settings goes well beyond their role as modern cityscapes, exposing the under layer of the human experience. Though he was considered a realist, his work was during a time between the World Wars. By considering the dramatic use of soft lighting, smallest action and representation of smaller spaces, Hopper led the way towards Abstract Expressionism.