The Cape Ann Museum has announced the upcoming exhibition “Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape” in 2023. This major exhibition will showcase the critically acclaimed American artist during a significant turning point in his life and career, when he visited Cape Ann from 1923 to 1928. It will be the first exhibition dedicated to Hopper’s formative development on Cape Ann, marking the pivotal summer of 1923 when Edward Hopper and his future wife, Josephine “Jo” Nivison, visited Gloucester. Presented in collaboration with the Whitney Museum of American Art, the exhibition will open on Hopper’s birthday, July 22, 2023, and run through October 16, 2023. According to Cape Ann Museum Director Oliver Barker, “Edward Hopper & Cape Ann marks the centennial of the summer of 1923 when Edward Hopper created watercolors that earned his first critical acclaim and laid the foundation for future success as one of the greatest 20th-century American landscape painters.”
The exhibition showcases a total of 65 works, consisting of paintings, drawings, and prints, gathered from 26 different sources including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, National Gallery of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and several other institutions and private lenders. The purpose is to narrate the story of Edward Hopper’s formative years, when he experimented with his painting technique, met his future wife, and started his legendary career. The exhibit features 57 pieces created by Edward Hopper, seven by Jo Hopper, and one by their teacher, Robert Henri.
The once-in-a-generation exhibition “Edward Hopper & Cape Ann: Illuminating an American Landscape” is curated by Elliot Bostwick Davis, PhD, a nationally recognized curator and former museum director. The exhibition, accompanied by a 224-page catalogue published by Rizzoli Electa, features 65 works including paintings, drawings, and prints from 26 institutions and private lenders. The exhibition tells the story of Hopper’s formative years on Cape Ann, including his experimentation with painting techniques, meeting his future wife, and embarking on a legendary career. Of the 65 works, 57 are by Edward Hopper, seven are by Jo Hopper, and one is by their teacher Robert Henri.
Hopper initially struggled to find a distinctive artistic voice despite painting in Gloucester in 1912 and in Maine for six more summers. Cape Ann was perhaps his last chance to make a name for himself as a painter at the age of 41. By 1923, he was supporting himself as an illustrator and etcher, having only sold one painting over a decade earlier.
During his initial visit to Cape Ann, Hopper produced his first oil painting outdoors in the United States, invited by his friend and fellow painter Leon Kroll. The Whitney Museum is lending Hopper’s five oils painted in Gloucester in 1912, including “Briar Neck, Gloucester” (1912), “Tall Masts” (1912), “Italian Quarter” (1912), and “Gloucester Harbor” (1912). These works will be shown together on Cape Ann for the first time in the exhibition.
Cape Ann’s accessible location by train from New York City and its renowned light that had attracted other artists, including Fitz Henry Lane, William Morris Hunt, Winslow Homer, John Sloan, Theresa Bernstein, William Meyerowitz, and Stuart Davis, among others, also caught Edward Hopper’s attention. During his stay on Cape Ann, Hopper was inspired to paint various maritime scenes and portrayals of sunlight on houses.
In 1923, Josephine “Jo” Verstille Nivison was already an established artist, amateur actress, and dancer. Her paintings had been accepted by the Brooklyn Museum, exhibited at prestigious Manhattan art galleries, and were included in a forthcoming exhibition in London and Paris. Hopper and Nivison had known each other from painting experiences and studies with artist and teacher Robert Henri, but they reconnected in Gloucester, where they began painting together during early morning excursions. Nivison encouraged Hopper to use easy-to-transport watercolors instead of oil paints. Their friendship was strengthened when Hopper found Nivison’s cat, Arthur, wandering Gloucester’s back streets and returned him.
Nivison’s advice to Hopper during their painting excursions resulted in his creation of Eastern Point Light (1923) followed by 17 more watercolors over eight weeks that summer. Among them were Deck of a Beam Trawler, 1923; Portuguese Church, Gloucester, 1923; House in Italian Quarter (1923); and The Mansard Roof (1923).
Following their return to New York in the fall of 1923, Nivison advocated for Hopper’s work to be included alongside her own in the second major biennial dedicated to American watercolors at the Brooklyn Museum. The curators selected six of Hopper’s Gloucester watercolors, and the museum eventually purchased The Mansard Roof (1923) for $100. This marked the first sale of a painting by Edward Hopper in over a decade and was a major turning point in his career, thanks to Nivison’s influence and their time together on Cape Ann.
By 1924, Hopper wanted to return to Gloucester for another summer of painting with Nivison, but she preferred to go to Provincetown to be with other artists and theatrical types. However, she agreed to go to Gloucester on one condition: they get married that day, July 9, 1924. The wedding took place, and the couple returned to Cape Ann for their honeymoon and another summer of painting together. They remained married for 43 years.
The Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester will present Edward Hopper & Cape Ann at its Downtown Campus, along with a six-part lecture series and a day-long symposium to be held on September 30, 2023. The museum has collaborated with every eighth-grader on Cape Ann to create original student work in preparation for the exhibition. The exhibition titled “A View from My Window” will showcase the student work from April 1 to May 14, 2023. The museum will also resume its regular schedule of walking tours of sites Hopper painted in Spring 2023.
The accompanying 224-page catalog, published by Rizzoli Electa, shares the exhibit’s title, Edward Hopper & Cape Ann. It tells the largely ignored but significant origin story of Edward Hopper’s years in and around Gloucester, Massachusetts. The book will be available in hardcover and softcover editions, and the latter will be exclusively sold at the Cape Ann Museum Store.
Timed-entry tickets for the exhibition will be required and will be available for purchase at www.capeannmuseum.org from June 1, 2023. Admission prices are $23 for adults, $18 for Cape Ann residents, seniors, and students, and free for youth under 18. The full lecture details and symposium speakers will be announced in March 2023. The museum’s director, Oliver Barker, has expressed enthusiasm for the exhibition and the partnership with Rizzoli Electa.
