Edward Hopper was born on July 22, 1882 in New York in the United States and died on May 15, 1967 in the United States. Particularly known for his paintings, he is nonetheless a talented engraver and watercolourist.
A student in commercial design and painting at the prestigious New York School of Art in New York, Hopper has John Singer Sargent and Robert Henri as teachers. The former is an imitator and the latter encourages his students to paint urban life realistically. In order to perfect himself, Hopper made several stays in Europe and being in love with Paris, he made three stays there. He shares his Parisian experience in his early works. Back in his country of origin, he works as an advertising designer while continuing to paint in his spare time. It was in 1913 that he sold his first painting at the Armory Show, but it did not bring him fame. It is only ten years later that he will sell new ones. While they were both art students, Hopper met Josephine Verstille Nivison, known as "Jo", and married her in 1924. Despite many violent arguments, he never left her. Her presence is also necessary to him, since she serves as a female model for his paintings. In 1924, during his second individual exhibition, Hopper achieved great success and decided to devote himself entirely to painting. He quickly became the main representative of new realism and was the first artist to use the American agricultural and urban environment as his main pictorial subjects. He thus remains aloof from contemporary avant-garde research. In 1933, a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art of New York finished establishing its reputation. The more the years pass, the more Hopper finds it difficult to find new subjects and lets himself be overtaken by abstract expressionism. He died in 1967, isolated but not forgotten. His work has inspired generations of artists, filmmakers and writers, including Alfred Hitchcock.