Edward Hopper was born in the small Hudson River town of Nyack, New York State, on 22 July 1882. By 1899 he had already decided to become an artist, but his parents persuaded him to begin by studying commercial illustration because this seemed to offer a more secure future.
He first attended the New York School of, then in 1900 transferred to the New York School of Art. He also worked under Robert Henri, one of the fathers of American Realism - a man whom he later described as 'the most influential teacher I had'. Hopper remained at the School of Art for seven years, latterly undertaking some teaching work himself.
He painted hotels, motels, trains and highways, and also liked to paint the public and semi-public places where people gathered: restaurants, theatres, cinemas and offices. But even in these paintings he stressed the theme of loneliness - his theatres are often semi deserted, with a few patrons waiting for the curtain to go up or the performers isolated in the fierce light of the stage. When the link between the outer world he observed and the inner world of feeling and fantasy broke, Hopper found he was unable to create.
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