Art Masterpiece

Project Procedure Form

Artist: Edward Hopper Name of Print: “Route 6 Eastham” & “7 a.m.” Project: 1 Point Perspective Scene Objective: The students will be exposed to a new drawing technique.

Description: This is a step by step project that must be done in front of the class either on the black board or on an overhead projector Provide the students with the handout of the directions so they will have it at their tables and to take home and practice. This is not a difficult project when done in a step by step process. The students will love learning this new skill. In front of the class, follow the direction on the handout having them work at their desk along with you. They will be working only with a pencil and ruler at this point. After they have completed one side of the project, encourage them to make another house or building on the other side. Remind them that they still must use the 1 point vanishing point regardless of where they are drawing. When they are finished drawing, have them add color and detail with colored pencils (mountains, sky, trees, flowers, etc.)

Suggestions: Remind them again of the vanishing point and what they learned in earlier lessons about depth. Items such as trees should be larger in the front and smaller as they go back.

Supplies: White Drawing Paper Colored Pencils Pencils Erasers Rulers

Property Of: ANNA MARIE JACOBSON ELEMENTARY ART MASTERPIECE PROGRAM Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper was born in 1882 in Nyack, New York. His father owned a dry-goods store. We do not know much about his childhood. In 1956 Time Magazine did a cover story about Hopper. Even with that opportunity Hopper would not allow his sister to talk about their childhood in Nyack. He was a very private person. Hopper studied art for a brief time at an academy for commercial illustrators. In 1900 he enrolled in art at the New York Institute of Art and Design and commuted to from Nyack and the family store. For the next six years he studied painting with several of the best known instructors of the day. They had a life long influence on his work. Upon completing his formal education Hopper made three extended trips to Europe between 1906 and 1910. He was impressed with Paris and the world looked different to Hopper after France. He said America seemed crude and raw after France. As he studied the emerging art scene there, unlike many of his contemporaries who imitated the abstract cubist experiments, the idealism and detail of the realist painters resonated with Hopper. His early projects reflect the realist influence with an emphasis on colour and shape. Eschewing the usual subjects of seascapes or boats, Hopper was attracted to Victorian architecture, although it was no longer in fashion. "He really liked the way these

Property Of: ANNA MARIE JACOBSON ELEMENTARY ART MASTERPIECE PROGRAM houses with their turrets and towers and porches and mansard roofs and ornament cast wonderful shadows. He always said that his favorite thing was painting sunlight on the side of a house." In 1924 he married Jo Nivison, also an artist whom he had met at the New

York Institute of Design while he was also a student their. While he worked for several years as a commercial artist, Hopper continued painting with moderate success yet not as much as he wanted. He had studios in New York, spent time in . They took car trips out West. He painted, at most, two or three canvases a year. Jo was always his model when he needed one. He had his first major exhibition in New York City in 1925. It was a show of watercolors and it enabled him to give up commercial art completely. Hopper is best known for his work in watercolors and oils. His themes throughout his paintings are those of isolated individuals and isolated building and scenes. By 1924 at the elements of his art were in place, the melancholy, the sparseness, the silence, the lonely people. The most well known of Hopper's paintings is (1942), this paintings shows customers sitting at the counter of an all-night . The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the dark night outside, enhancing the mood and subtle emotion of the painting. The painting conveys the elements of confinement and isolation. Most of Hopper's paintings have a concentration on the subtle interaction of human beings with their environment and with each other. Like stills for a movie or tableaux in a

Property Of: ANNA MARIE JACOBSON ELEMENTARY ART MASTERPIECE PROGRAM play, Hopper positions his characters as if they have been captured just before or just after the climax of a scene

Hopper's cinematic, wide compositions and dramatic use of light and dark has also made him a favorite among filmmakers. For example, House by the Railroad is said to have heavily influenced the iconic house in the film Psycho. The same painting has also been cited as being an influence on the home in the film . Noted surrealist horror film director Dario Argento went so far as to recreate the diner and the patrons in Nighthawks as part of a set for his 1976 film Deep Red.

In 1993, was inspired sufficiently by Hopper's 1941 painting, "Girlie Show", that she named her upcoming world tour after it and incorporated many of the theatrical elements and mood of the painting into the show.

To establish the lighting of scenes in the 2002 film Road to Perdition, director drew from the paintings of Hopper as a source of inspiration, particularly .

In 2004 British guitarist John Squire (formerly of The Stone Roses fame) released a concept album based on Hopper's work entitled Marshall's House. Each song on the album inspired by, and sharing its title with, a painting by Hopper.

Property Of: ANNA MARIE JACOBSON ELEMENTARY ART MASTERPIECE PROGRAM Hopper continued to paint in his old age, dividing his time between New York City and Truro, Massachusetts. He died in 1967, in his studio near Washington Square, in New York City. His wife, painter Josephine Nivison, who died 10 months later, bequeathed his work to the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Property Of: ANNA MARIE JACOBSON ELEMENTARY ART MASTERPIECE PROGRAM