(Study of the Sphinx)

22 July 1882 – 1910 · Residence

Edward Hopper Birthplace and Boyhood Home

1899

Resolves to become an artist

Graduating from Nyack High School in 1899, where he carved wooden models of sailboats and barges and dreamed of becoming a naval architect, Hopper declares that he will be an artist; his parents insist on a commercial course for the sake of a reliable income. His outlook is shaped by Ralph Waldo Emerson, whom he later reads over and over again.

1899–1905

The school of Chase and Henri: not the subject, but how you feel about it

At the New York School of Art and Design, where he spends six years, William Merritt Chase teaches him oil painting and at first Hopper models his style on Chase, Manet and Degas, while sketching from live models proves shocking for the conservatively raised young man. Robert Henri, who teaches the life class, urges his students to “make a stir in the world” and teaches that it is not the subject that counts but what you feel about it.

1900–1906 · Education

Parsons School of Design

1905

Meeting Josephine Nivison

In Robert Henri's classes Hopper meets his future wife, the artist Josephine Nivison; in 1914 both stay at the same boarding house in Ogunquit, but they will grow close only in 1923.

1905

A job at an advertising agency: trade-magazine covers

In 1905 Hopper lands a part-time job at the advertising agency C. C. Phillips and Company, where he designs covers for trade magazines such as the New York Edison Bulletin. He comes to detest illustration but economic necessity keeps him in it until the mid-1920s.