Edward Hopper: Great American Painter Quiz

Answer: Realist

Edward Hopper painted realist depictions of deserted streets, sparse apartment interiors, gas stations and light houses, all beautifully simple and provoking feelings of isolation and deep contemplation. Often his paintings feature distracted and disengaged people seemingly caught in the middle of some unknown narrative.

Answer: All of these

In his lifetime, Hopper created over 800 paintings, watercolors and prints, as well as countless commercial illustrations. He began his career as a commercial artist, but this work left him feeling artistically stifled. He began experimenting with watercolor and eventually garnered success. It is his work in oils, however, for which he is most remembered.

Answer: The Mansard Roof

Hopper sold numerous commercial prints in his early career, but struggled to gain notice as a serious artist. "The Mansard Roof" was only the second painting Hopper had ever sold, the first being an oil sold ten years earlier.
Hopper entered six watercolors, including "The Mansard Roof", in The Brooklyn Museum's annual watercolor show in 1923. The museum's purchase of this painting gave him the notice and critical attention that would eventually launch his career.

Answer: taciturn

Hopper was a tall and imposing man, known for his long silences and dislike of small talk. When he did speak, he did so with deliberation and method, in a flat, serious monotone. Many critics feel that his personality is reflected in his work.

Answer: He was inspired by how the Victorian style houses there reflected the light.

Gloucester, Massachusetts has many 19th century, Victorian homes. Americans in the mid-twenties generally viewed theses houses as excessive and flowery, but Hopper was attracted to their rich detail and texture. His watercolors play with light, shadow and color, celebrating this style of architecture.

Answer: She was an artist.

Josephine Nivison and Edward Hopper met at art school and were married in 1924. She often served as a model for Hopper's works. Their's was a difficult and tumultuous relationship. She was an artist in her own right, but felt overshadowed and unsupported by her husband.

Answer: Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock was an abstract expressionist painter, who gained fame much later in the 1950s.

Answer: The Art Institute of Chicago

This painting is an American icon. Painted in 1942, immediately after Japan's attack of Pearl Harbor, Hopper encapsulated and displayed three patrons and a waiter in a lonely, neon lit diner as they each suffer their own brand of night-time angst and isolation.

This painting has appeared and reappeared throughout American popular culture and is a beloved part of The Art Institute of Chicago's collection.

Answer: Pennies from Heaven

In "Pennies from Heaven", Steve Martin plays a sheet music salesman in Chicago during the Depression. Within the film, Hopper paintings "New York Movie" and "Nighthawks" are recreated in painstaking detail. The film also recreates two other paintings by another well known American artist, Reginald Marsh. These are "Hudson Bay Fur Company" and "20 Cent Movie".

Answer: London, Düsseldorf, and Amsterdam

This exhibition caused a rebirth in Hopper's popularity in the US and began his appreciation throughout the world. For the first time ever, this show paired Hopper's oil paintings together with their studies.