Customer Reviews

The Complete Watercolors of Edward Hopper

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It is exactly what it claims: a"catalog" of all Hopper watercolors, with short notes about each work from the artists' notebook. I appreciate the compact, easy to handle size, and the clean design, yet wish for larger reproductions.(Which explains the 4-star rating.) I was delighted to see many watercolors for the first time. If you are disapointed by the lack of text, get Virginia Mecklenburgs' book on Hopper watercolors...it's as "easy" and wonderful to read as this book is to look at. I look forward to owning the companion, The Complete Paintings of Edward Hopper.

Levin has split her Catalogue Raisonne of Hopper's work into two books with this one containing all the watercolors. I must disagree with other reviewers here regarding their complaints about the size of the images. In my opinion, it's unrealistic to make the images larger without changing the size/format of the book - which matches the companion of Hopper's oil paintings. Besides, this is a complete catalog of all his watercolors and I think it works very well. Don't assume that the images are "tiny"; they fit the pages and hence, I won't downgrade my assessment to match theirs.

Levin has done an outstanding job and I think all Hopper fans will appreciate this book. Highly recommended.

This would be a 5 star book if the reproductions were just a bit larger, but it's a small complaint. If you like Hopper you will enjoy discovering works you've never seen before. If you're a painter too, you'll like the format: 1 page of introductory text and nothing but reproductions after that! Lots of people are familiar with Hopper's quote "All I ever wanted to paint was sunlight on the side of a house." This is the book that makes you understand what he meant: his mostly on-sight watercolors have a sun drenched quality that his oils didn't catch as often, good as they are. Hard to imagine anyone being disappointed by this book.