1882
July 22, Edward Hopper born in Nyack, New York,
son of Garret Henry Hopper and Elizabeth Griffiths Smith Hopper, initially
attends a private school and then the local public school, Nyack High School.
1899-1900
With his parents’ support, studies illustration at the
Correspondence School of Illustrating.
1900-1906
New York School of Art, studies illustration with Arthur Keller
and Frank Vincent DuMond, then painting under Robert Henri, William Merritt
Chase, and Kenneth Hayes Miller. Painted [Solitary Figure in a Theatre].
1905
Employed as an illustrator by C. C. Phillips & Company, a New
York advertising agency.
1906
Visits Paris, painting city streets in an Impressionist manner and
watercolour caricatures.
1907
Participates in his first exhibition, organised by fifteen of Robert
Henri’s students in the old Harmonie Club building, 43-45 West Forty-second
Street, New York.
1909-1910
Visits Paris twice, painting out-of-doors along the Seine frequently.
1913
During winter exhibits in the International Exhibition, the Armory
Show and sold his first canvas there, Sailing 1911. Moves to top-floor
studio at 3 Washington Square North, New York, where he lived until his
death.
1915-1924
Learns to etch and concentrates on printmaking, producing an
outstanding array of etchings and drypoints. Including: American Landscape
1920.
1920
Solo exhibition of paintings, principally of his Paris years at
the Whitney Studio Club, New York. None of the paintings sell, and at thirty-seven,
still dependent on commercial illustration to earn his living, Hopper begins
to doubt whether he will achieve success as an artist.
1923
Begins to paint with watercolours, one is bought by the Brooklyn
Museum. Awarded prizes for etching in exhibitions in Chicago and Los Angeles.
Exhibits at National Arts Club, New York, in the Humorist’s Exhibition.
1924
Marries the painter, Josephine Verstille Nivison. Approaches Frank
Rehn who offers him his first solo exhibition at a commercial gallery;
all eleven paintings sell and five more are sold from the back room, enabling
Hopper to give up commercial illustration work and encouraging him to paint
in oils again.
1925
Exhibits at the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia, they purchase
an oil painting. Visits Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he paints seven watercolours.
1927
Paints Automat. With sale of Two on the Aisle for 1,500 dollars
buys first automobile, a two-year-old Dodge. He is able to paint in remote
places in both Ogunquit and Gloucester.
1929
Included in MoMA’s second exhibition, Paintings by Nineteen
Living Americans.
1930
Paints Early Sunday Morning. During the summer, Hopper and his wife
rent “Bird Cage Cottage” in South Truro, Massachusetts on Cape
Cod.
1933
At age of fifty-one, receives his first large-scale solo exhibition
at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Exhibits twenty-five oils, thirty-seven
watercolours and eleven prints.
1934
In July Hopper and his wife move into the studio/house that he has
designed in South Truro (where they spent most of their successive summers).
1935
Paints House at Dusk. Awarded Temple Gold Medal, Pennsylvania Academy
of Fine Arts and the First Purchase Prize in watercolour, Worchester Art.
1940
Paints Office at Night.
1941
Paints
Nighthawks, purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago, and
is an overnight success, becoming signature work for Hopper and an iconic
American image.
1945
Awarded Logan Art Institute Medal and Honorarium, The Art Institute
of Chicago.
1950
Retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art, touring to
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Detroit Institute of Arts. Awarded
honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, by the Art Institute of Chicago.
Paints Cape Cod Morning.
1952
Hopper was one of four artists chosen by the American Federation
of Arts to represent the United States in the Venice Biennale. Paints Morning
Sun.
1953
Awarded Honorary degree, Doctor of Letters, Rutgers University.
The Metropolitan Museum, about to open new American wing, purchases Office
in a Small City.
1955
Gold Medal for Painting presented by the National Institute of Arts
and Letters in the name of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
1956
Awarded Huntington Hartford Foundation fellowship and stays at foundation’s
headquarters in Pacific Palisades, California for six months.
1959
Solo exhibition at Currier Gallery of Art, tours to Rhode Island
School of Design in December and Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut.
1960
Receives Art in America Annual Award. Paints Second Story Sunlight.
1962
October-November, The Complete Graphic Work of Edward Hopper, runs
at Philadelphia Museum of Art.
1963
Receives award from the St Botolph Club, Boston. Retrospective Exhibition
at the Arizona Art Gallery, in South Truro. Paints Sun in an Empty Room.
1964
May, protracted illness keeps Hopper from painting. Awarded M. V.
Khonstamn Prize for Painting, The Art Institute of Chicago. September-November,
major Retrospective Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which
travels to the Art Institute of Chicago and is well received by critics.
1965
Retrospective tours to the Detroit Institute of Arts and the City
Art Museum of St Louis. Awarded honorary degree, Doctor of Fine Arts, Philadelphia
College of Art. July 16, death of Hopper’s sister Marion in Nyack,
New York. Paints final work Two Comedians.
1966
Awarded Edward MacDowell Medal.
1967
May 15, Edward Hopper dies in his studio at 3 Washington Square
North.
1968
Jo Hopper dies on 6 March.
Recommended Reading:
Edward Hopper's New York
