"Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist, and this inner life will result in his personal vision of the world. No amount of skillful invention can replace the essential element of imagination. One of the weaknesses of much abstract painting is the attempt to substitute the inventions of the intellect for a pristine imaginative conception.

The inner life of a human being is a vast and varied realm, and does not concern itself alone with pleasing or stimulating arrangements of form and color and design."

Written Statement by Edward Hopper from the collection of Frank Capezzera

Brian O’Doherty, who knew Edward Hopper well and was one of eight people to attend his funeral, summedup Hopper’s artistic career:

“It has come down to this: some two-score master-images, stamped into the popular imagination. Their iconic status, to which the work offers a mild and steady resistance, is reinforced with each generation. Hopper’s images now voyage across the decades, cultures and geographies …easily accessible referents that frequently project themselves on everyday experience…Better to say that Hopper was one of the twentieth century’s greatest artists, great in terms of the rewards he promises and delivers.”

Edward Hopper died in 1967. When Jo Hopper died eight months later she left the entire contents of the New York Studio to the Whitney Museum and their Cape Cod home in Truro to her friend Mary Schiffenhaus.

In drawers and cupboards Mrs. Schiffenhaus found studies for many of Hoppers great late works. The twenty-two drawings in this exhibition were given to her close friend Frank Capezerra in 1969.

Hopper always drew and up until 1945, in addition to painting, he did watercolors, which provided some income. But he never sold his drawings, even in the last twenty years of his life when his painting production was very limited and he could have certainly used the money. Most of Hopper’s drawings have been tucked away at the Whitney since his death and have not been fully studied.