Edward Hopper Boxed Notecards

Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967) built his paintings around light. “I like long shadows and early and late sunlight. I am very much interested in light, and particularly sunlight, trying to paint sunlight without eliminating the form under it, if I can.”

Early in his career, no one seemed interested in Hopper’s oil paintings and watercolors, so he turned to etching—a popular medium that would allow him to produce inexpensive images within the reach of the working class. From 1915 to the early 1920s he produced black-and-white prints in which he registered fine gradations of luminosity. Then he returned to making watercolors and oil paintings, applying his hard-won skill to the remarkable series of domestic interiors and cityscapes that followed.

The four paintings presented in this box of notecards are among the approximately one hundred works in the 2007–2008 major exhibition featured at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; and the Art Institute of Chicago.