Edward Hopper 1882 - 1967

Eugene D. Hopper
The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1954 (gift from the above; sold: Christie's, New York, May 24, 2007, lot 137, illustrated)
Acquired by the present owner at the above sale

Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, Twelfth Biennial: International Water Color Exhibition, April-May 1943, no. 65
New York, Frank K.M. Rehn Gallery, Water Colors by Edward Hopper, November-December 1943, no. 8
New York, The American Academy of Arts and Letters and The National Institute of Arts and Letters, Works by Newly Elected Members and Recipients of "Arts and Letters Grants," May-June 1945, no. 8
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, The Forty-third Annual Philadelphia Water Color and Print Exhibition, and the Forty-forth Annual Exhibition of Miniatures, October-November 1945, no. 254
Vienna, Austria, Albertina, Amerikanische Meister des Aquarells, October-December 1949, no. 30
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper Retrospective, February-March 1950, no. 122
Manchester, New Hampshire, The Currier Gallery of Art, Watercolors by Edward Hopper With a Selection of His Etchings, October-November 1959, no. 39
Zanesville, Ohio, Art Institute of Zanesville, Ohio, Ten Americans-1860-1960, October 1960
Oxford, Ohio, Miami University Center, Paintings from The Butler Institute of American Art, November 1961
Tucson, Arizona, University of Arizona Art Gallery, A Retrospective Exhibition of Oils and Watercolors by Edward Hopper, April-May 1963, no. 39
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper, September-November 1964, no. 125
Syracuse, New York, Art and Home Center, Exhibition Grounds, Five Distinguished American Artists: Dickinson, Hofmann, Hopper, Shahn, Soyer, August-September 1965, no. 28
Canton, Ohio, The Canton Art Institute, Contemporary American Realism, November 1968
Tyler, Texas, Tyler Museum of Art, American Painting 1900 to Present, March-April 1971
New York, Andrew Crispo Gallery, Ten Americans, May-July 1974, no. 91, illustrated
New Castle, Pennsylvania, The Hoyt Institute of Fine Arts, Forty Watercolors from the Collection of The Butler Institute of American Art, April 1982, no. 19

Artist's Record Book, vol. II, p. 57
Royal Cortissoz, "Some Progressive Americans," The New York Herald Tribune, December 5, 1943, section 4, p. 5
Emily Genauer, "At Rehn and Kraushaar's," New York World-Telegram, December 4, 1943, p. 6
Maud Riley, "New Watercolors by Edward Hopper," The Art Digest, December 15, 1943, p. 20
Lloyd Goodrich, Edward Hopper, New York, 1971, illustrated p. 251
"Rare Realist," MD, vol. 17, September 1973, pp. 138-43
The Butler Institute of American Art, Sixty Years of Collecting American Art: An Index to the Permanent Collection, Youngstown, Ohio, 1979, pp. 20, 61, illustrated
Marshall Cavendish, The Great Artists: Their Lives, Works and Inspiration, Part 88: Hopper, London, 1986, illustrated p. 2793
Irene S. Sweetkind, ed., Master Paintings From The Butler Institute of American Art, New York, 1994, p. 262, illustrated
Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York, 1995, vol. II, no. W-335, p. 304, illustrated in color
Irene S. Sweetkind, ed., The Butler Institute of American Art: Index of the Permanent Collection, Youngstown, Ohio, 1997, p. 89, illustrated 
Gail Levin, The Complete Watercolors of Edward Hopper, New York, 2001, no. 335, p. 204, illustrated in color
Virginia M. Mecklenburg, Edward Hopper: The Watercolors, New York and London, 1999, pp. 142, 161
Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography, New York, 2007, p. 341

In May 1941, Edward Hopper and his wife, Jo, drove west, their first long car trip in over a decade. Trips on the road were an important source of creative inspiration for the artist, during which watercolor served as Hopper's preferred medium. With Jo at the wheel and Hopper in the backseat, the car became the couple’s traveling studio. After driving up the coast of California and north to Oregon, the Hoppers returned home to the east through Wyoming and stopped in Yellowstone and Shoshone National Forest, where he painted the present work. Hopper began this watercolor outdoors at the base of the Holy City rock formations, the dramatic red sandstone rocks that rise dramatically above the Shoshone River. Always interested in conveying the fleeting and varied effects of light on a particular place, Hopper captures the colorful shadows that cascade along the rugged surface of the cliffs and creates a painterly sense of texture throughout the composition. Devoid of any human presence, the composition appears almost abstract but still conveys the intangible sense of solitude evoked by the artist’s most successful images.