Overview

Hopper & Cape Ann tells the little known, largely ignored, and profoundly significant origin story of Edward Hopper s years in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts a period and place that imbued Hopper s painting with a clarity and purpose that eluded his earlier work and set the stage for his monumental career. Expanding on a major retrospective exhibit at the Cape Ann Museum ( July 22 October 16, 2023) to include an unprecedented loan of 25 works from the Whitney Museum of American Art, the book focuses on the summer of 1923 when Hopper first embraced watercolour during outdoor painting excursions on Cape Ann and discovered one of his favourite subjects, houses and vernacular architecture. The success of Hopper s Gloucester watercolours transformed his work in all media. What is significant and revealed in this volume is the lesser known story about how a young painter, Josephine Nivison, who became the most trusted force underlying Hopper s artistic confidence as well as his wife. Here she is recast as principal producer of Hopper s distinctive style and most trusted brand visionary from the time of their courtship until his death in 1967.

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9780847899340

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Reviews

"""This once-in-a-generation exhibition, and the accompanying 224-page catalog being published by Rizzoli Electa, are curated by nationally recognized curator and former museum director Elliot Bostwick Davis, PhD. 'Despite painting in Gloucester in 1912 and in Maine for six more summers, Hopper initially struggled to find a distinctive artistic voice,' writes Davis. 'Hopper understood that Gloucester, familiar from his earlier trip in 1912, was perhaps his last chance to make a name for himself as a painter at the age of 41. By 1923, he was supporting himself as an illustrator and etcher; his only painting sale had occurred over a decade earlier.'"" —AUCTION CENTRAL NEWS"

""A lavishly produced catalogue, the text thoroughly researched and beautifully written by Elliot Bostwick Davis (a former head of American art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). If you can’t go, the book will do nicely. But the show is worth traveling to see."" —The Washington Post ""This once-in-a-generation exhibition, and the accompanying 224-page catalog being published by Rizzoli Electa, are curated by nationally recognized curator and former museum director Elliot Bostwick Davis, PhD. 'Despite painting in Gloucester in 1912 and in Maine for six more summers, Hopper initially struggled to find a distinctive artistic voice,' writes Davis. 'Hopper understood that Gloucester, familiar from his earlier trip in 1912, was perhaps his last chance to make a name for himself as a painter at the age of 41. By 1923, he was supporting himself as an illustrator and etcher; his only painting sale had occurred over a decade earlier.'"" —AUCTION CENTRAL NEWS

Author Information

Elliot Bostwick Davis was a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MFA, Boston, as well as a museum director. She is also a scholar and writer with a focus on the careers of artists Winslow Homer, Edward Hopper, and Jamie Wyeth.

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