Edward Hopper and Maine

We all love our Andy Wyeth as well as his talented artistic family. They are all responsible for increasing the tourist trade as they come to see their works and see where they painted a lot of them. We miss having Andy around in the summer time. But did you know that in the early 1900s there was another famous American artist who also did paintings of our area? Andrew Wyeth was a big admirer of this other famous American artist.

Edward Hopper, self-portrait

That artist is Edward Hopper and he did, in fact, create a painting from our very own South End. It is called “Haunted House” and was painted in 1926. The first picture below is the scene he took his idea from. You are looking up Atlantic Street in the South End, towards the Snow shipyard from the Cobb and Butler shipyard, about 1900. The house was the Atlantic House, on South Street, and was a boarding house which has since been destroyed. It is in the upper right of the picture with the chimneys. Whether or not it was really haunted is a question I’d like the answer to. If anyone has that story, please share it with the rest of us. (picture courtesy of Tim Sullivan from the Rockland History Facebook page)

The second picture is the actual painting which can be viewed at the Farnsworth Museum.

                                         

Another picture he did in Rockland is “Mrs. Achorn’s Parlor.” When Hopper visited Rockland with his wife they probably stayed at Mrs. Asenath H. Achorn’s lodging house at 17 Lindsey St as this is the parlor there.

Mrs. Acorn's Parlor, 1926, courtesy of Tim Sullivan of the Rockland History Facebook page

So who was Edward Hopper the artist? He was a realist painter and printmaker, who was born in Nyack, New York to a middle class family on July 22, 1882. His folks encouraged his early interest in art and supplied him with the essential tools to pursue his special talent. He ended up being a famous American artist before he died on May 15, 1967.

He modeled his style after Manet and Degas and was also influenced by Rembrandt. In 1905 he was working as an advertising illustrator and he hated it. Eventually he was able to cross over to his own art work.

He maintained a studio in Washington Square, NYC from 1913 to his death. Washington Square, in Greenwich Village, a cultural center of the city, has long been known as a meeting place for the artistic population, including artists, poets, writers and singers. New York University is located here and it now owns most of the buildings around the Square. It’s one of my favorite places in the big apple.

Many of Hopper’s work is urban related, most likely influenced by his surroundings in NYC.

Hopper’s work is shown in most major museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, and our own Farnsworth Museum.

Around the 1920s a friend suggested that Hopper visit Maine. He initially drifted towards the two art colonies in Maine at Ogunquit and Monhegan Island. When he got to Monhegan, he also discovered other areas of our coast. Many of his paintings depict our lighthouses, old houses, and sloops. You can find them on many sites online. It is impossible to show them all here, but I will give you some great references at the end of this story, so that you can discover him for yourself.

Some of the Maine titles include, besides those above, “Captain Upton’s House,” 1927; “Blackhead, Monhegan,” 1916-19; “Monhegan Houses,” 1916-19; “Lime Rock Quarry II”; “Pemaquid Light.”

If you want to explore the works of Edward Hopper, I suggest the following sites online:

www.yankeemagazine.com. Look for Edward Hopper Maine paintings.

www.downeast.com. Look for “Hopper’s Beacons”

www.bowdoin.edu/museum/exhibitions/2011 The college had an exhibit of Hopper’s work the summer of 2011.

Also check out the Farnsworth.

I always enjoy seeing through the eyes of famous people as they depict our corner of New England, especially the coastal areas. They soon learn what we’ve always known, that coastal Maine has a lot to offer and is a great place to live.

Thanks for listening.