Summer Interior

22 juillet 1882 – 1910 · Résidence

Edward Hopper Birthplace and Boyhood Home

1906–1910

Three trips to Europe, centred on Paris

Ostensibly to study art, Hopper makes three trips to Europe, each centred on Paris, with visits to London, Berlin and Amsterdam: in fact he mostly works alone, drawing street and café scenes and going to the theatre and opera, little affected by the new currents. He is highly impressed by Rembrandt, particularly the Night Watch, and later claims few European influences other than Rembrandt, Goya and the French engraver Charles Meryon, whose moody Paris scenes he imitated.

1910

A studio in New York and a return to illustration

Returning from his last European trip, Hopper rents a studio in New York and struggles to define his own style; to support himself he reluctantly returns to illustration and, as a freelancer, knocks on the doors of magazine and agency offices. His fellow illustrator Walter Tittle sees him sitting for days before his easel in helpless unhappiness.