Josephine Hopper - Influence On Edward Hopper

Influence On Edward Hopper

As Edward Hopper's wife and companion for more than 40 years, Jo influenced his work in numerous ways. Perhaps most importantly, it was her example that inspired Edward to seriously take up watercolor, during the summer of 1923. A number of Jo's works depict motifs that would later become important for her husband. The watercolor Shacks, done in 1923, depicts two houses behind a dead tree, a subject similar to many of Hopper's later works. Jo's watercolor Movie Theater—Gloucester (c. 1926–27) foreshadowed Edward's interest in depicting movie theaters: he produced a drypoint of the subject in 1928, and then returned to it occasionally, most famously in the oil New York Movie (1939).

Since about 1924–25, i.e. almost immediately after their marriage, Jo became her husband's only model. It was also Jo who thought up the names for a number of her husband's paintings, including one of the most famous oils, Nighthawks. Despite their complicated relationship, she would also help with advice when Edward felt insecure about a painting in progress, as in, for example, the case of Five A.M. (1937). As late as 1936 Jo reported that her husband was highly competitive, and that her starting a work would frequently inspire Edward to start his own.