Study of a Man in Hat and Serapé
Edward Hopper
EDWARD HOPPER, DATE UNKNOWN. COLOURED PENCIL AND GRAPHITE ON PAPER.
Most known for his poignant vignettes of quiet moments amongst urbanity, the truest theme of Edward Hopper’s life was not the city, or the man, but America itself. He was a deeply native painter, one who did not want to discuss his art or himself but simply strove to capture the essence of the country into his canvases. His work is almost puritanical, balancing a deep melancholy with a realists eye that searches for truth in the external world, not within. His paintings reveal little of his person, so refined and considered are they, that it is in his study and sketches, such as this, that we can find the man in the brushstrokes. Mostly likely painted as a very young man, still in his twenties, there is a naivety to the drawings that hide a sophisticated composition. In few strokes, he captures a story; a man glancing back as he prepares for the road ahead, a glimmer of trepidation in his face and an unwillingness to reveal himself to the viewer. Yet, for all this, the colouring is playful, the strokes loose and undefined that bring a joy to the scene. This, perhaps, was Hopper’s genius - an ability to marry to mysterious, the melancholy, and the happy in one single vignette that spoke to a country through a single subject.