Edward Hopper’s Realism, Essay Example

In the history of human civilisation, each society and epoch were characterised by the different perception of beauty, aesthetics and art. Further, each artist within an epoch and a certain trend had his/hers perception of how to express art and its aesthetics. Thus, in order to understand a certain piece of art entirely, it should be explored in its context. The aim of this paper is to explore the body of work of Edward Hopper.

Edward Hopper is known in the history of art as a representative of American Twentieth-century realism. Like various representatives of realist artists, Hopper had his own perception and way of reflecting realism in his works. Mostly, he described human figures, mainly females, and various buildings in different locations. In this regard, he paid attention to geometrical accuracy of objects and their special design. Although details very essential in his works, he did not try to make them the cornerstone of his art. In other words, the entire composition was more meaningful than just a systematic reflection of details. One of the best examples of Hopper’s artwork is oil on canvas painting “House by the Railroad.” This painting shows the traditional feature of Hopper’s works – the use of straight, horizontal lines to distinguish space and separate the actual subject of the composition from viewer’s reality. In this case, the horizontal line of railroad separates the house from the viewer.

Another feature is the geometric strictness of lines that create an impression of asceticism, solitude and coldness of the described building. In this regard, the intention was to demonstrate the alienation of contemporary industrialised human life characterised by control and calculations from the world of nature, which is characterised by emotions and unpredictability. In order to reflect accuracy with real perspective of the composition, the artist used the play of light and shadow in order to show the time of the day and also to give the building its shape and the realist perception by the viewer. Hopper also liked to use contrast in order to centralise his target object of the composition. In this regard, the contrast is between the light blue sky and the dark brown of the railroad with a house being in-between. This creates the impression of a strong contrast and draws viewer’s attention to the building.

Hopper is famous for using both oil and watercolours in his works; however, at the beginning of this career, he also had a passion for sketches and the use of a pen. Because of his initial orientation on sketches and fascination from the accuracy of reflecting reality, Hopper primary principle in most of his works is the attention to geometric the accuracy of lines and forms. In this regard, the realist impression from his works is achieved not only by the attention to details but also by his calculation and mathematic facilitation of various parts of the composition into a whole. As the artist mentioned himself, his preparation for painting was similar to architects’ planning of the actual designing of a project. He had to have the image in his head and to calculate every detail and geometrical calculation of the future painting. In this regard, the primary feature of Hopper’s approach and the reason for his realism is the mathematic calculation of the future work.

The most common themes of Hopper’s works were human figures in various internal interiors and buildings outdoors. Although it may seem that there is no connection between two themes, they both demonstrated the level of human civilizational development at that time. In other words, he wanted to demonstrate the industrialised nature of human life in the first part of the Twentieth Century, which was inconsistent with the world of nature. For this reason, his compositions seldom mix nature with the reflection of industrialisation. Female figures he described were often in a room, surrounded by various advancements of the human progress of the time: lamps, sewing machines, different furniture. Everything in those interiors was showing how far the progress of human development had gone and where the place of people was in that world. Thus, through his mathematic details, strictness and control of space and concentration on industrial aspects of human life, it can be argued that he represented the art aimed not so much for aesthetic purposes but at stimulating human thought on the subject of how far human civilisation had gone and where it was going.

In terms of historical context and social milieu, Hopper had this strong fascination with industrial and technological advancement of human civilisation mainly because he lived through the time of incredible changes in the American society, which was the first half of the Twentieth Century. Also since his career developed gradually and through history of self-doubt, he also had to earn his living from sketches for various magazines, Hopper could appreciate the advantages of industrialised society since at the beginning of his career he did not have them and had to struggle in order to earn his living.

The significance of his works for the art history is that he demonstrated a gradual shift from the epoch of romanticism and idealisation of art to its new functionality – the depiction of reality and demonstration of human civilizational development. He is particularly relevant to the art history because he concentrated on the American reality of the time and thus his works serve as reflection on how industrial America looked like at that time and how it was perceived by realist artist of that period.