Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography [Hardcover]

Gail Levin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 3, 1995

A profile of American artist Edward Hopper is based on diaries by his wife Jo, revealing Hopper's dour and repressed personality, the sources of his creations, and his tempestuous forty-three-year marriage. 10,000 first printing. Tour.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This remarkable biography throws Hopper's art and life into sharp new perspective. Its focus is the laconic, introverted painter's stormy 43-year marriage to outspoken, gregarious Josephine ("Jo") Nivison, herself an artist. Levin, art professor at Baruch College and the City University of New York graduate school, draws extensively on Jo Hopper's intimate diaries, which she kept from the early 1930s until shortly before her death in 1968 (just 10 months after her husband died). Through diary entries, we learn that Hopper ridiculed, degraded and occasionally beat or bruised his wife, that he refused to let her drive their car, that he thwarted her career even as she devotedly helped him find subjects to paint. Nevertheless, as his model, intellectual peer and fellow artist, she stimulated his creativity, and, according to Levin, they became partners and conspirators in a domestic drama of deep attraction and violent opposition that fed his disquieting vision of modern life. Illustrated throughout with photographs as well as scores of reproductions of both Hoppers' paintings and drawings.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Hopper's cool portrayals of American life transcend photographic realism and, like the oft-reproduced and -parodied "Nighthawks," have become icons of despair and a remote hope. This thorough work is by necessity a dual biography of Hopper and Josephine Nivison Hopper, the artist's wife of nearly 50 years. By relying on the diaries and letters of Jo, Levin has depicted the antagonistic symbiosis of the couple's marriage. Jo Hopper was an untiring?though not uncomplaining?advocate of her husband's art and the female model for the characters in most of his great works. Hopper is depicted as a misogynist who takes every opportunity to thwart his wife's already frustrated?though not wholly unsuccessful?painting career. Living up to the "intimate" of the subtitle, Levin's biography has taken advantage of her sources to create a detailed and monumental ledger of the genesis and creation of Hopper's modern masterpieces. Levin, the author of numerous works on Hopper (including the recent Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonne, Norton, 1995), has carefully balanced the artistic and personal lives of the Hoppers. Recommended for all art and biography collections.?Martin R. Kalfatovic, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 678 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (October 3, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394546644
• ISBN-13: 978-0394546643
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,149,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very telling biography, August 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography (Hardcover)

Gail Levin, the curator of Hopper's works at the Whitney Museum in New York City, had the exclusive privilege of Josephine (Mrs.) Hopper's journals that extend from the 1920s to the 1960s. Jo was an artist herself and her frustrations are paralled with Edward's successes. Maybe too much of the book is about poor Mrs. Hopper and her unsuportive Husband, but Levin crafts the history so well that I didn't hold it against her. Each of the major oil paintings are covered from a making-of perspective which I found illuminating. I picked the book up originally just to glance through it, but I ultimately read the whole thing.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Comedians In Love - Edward and Josephine Hopper, December 28, 2002

By 

bookfan - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography (Paperback)

Gail Levin's book -Edward Hopper: an Intimate Biography- is about the life of a famous artist, Edward Hopper, as well as that of an obscure artist, Josephine Hopper (the former Josephine Nivison). Mrs. Hopper's detailed diaries, kept up faithfully for decades, are a major source of information for Levin's book. Since this necessarily puts the perspective of the book heavily on Jo's side of the story, no one should consider this one-stop shopping for finding out what made Edward Hopper tick. The Hoppers were a two completely opposite personalities who both complemented and aggravated each other. What I most like about Levin's book is that probably no one else has ever been in Jo Hopper's corner before Levin. Jo usually comes off as the stereotypical shrewish wife who dominated her poor henpecked husband. What a different picture is presented in this book! Instead, their marriage was much more complex, and the love/hate dynamics never seem to have leveled off during the many years they were together. Their story defies my own stereotypcial notion that as people grow old, their emotions level off and they are like two old bookends. Not with these two! I also enjoyed finding out that Edward Hopper was a Bette Davis fan, that he liked Jo to wear her hair down, that Jo's idea of cooking was opening up cans, and that Hopper had to haul buckets of coal up from the basement to feed the coal stove that heated their studio/living quarters. Much of these intimate details are provided courtesy of Jo's diaries, which served as an outlet and a refuge from her stolid husband. Perhaps best of all is the theatricality and eroticism suggested by Jo's descriptions of how they worked together as she posed for many of his paintings. In one of Edward Hopper's last paintings, Two Comedians, he portrays two shy actors taking a little bow: a loving tribute to their long and histrionic collaboration together, in life and in art.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting glimpse into the life of an American artist., January 3, 2001

By 

Christopher Waldrop (NASHVILLE, TN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography (Paperback)

Gail Levin's biography is a thorough review of Edward Hopper's life and work, spanning his early childhood, his struggles as an artist paying the bills by illustrating for magazines, his success, and his consistently remarkable artistic output. The surprise for me came from the revelation that his wife Jo, usually a marginal and minor figure, was a remarkable woman and an artist herself. Although one is tempted to wonder how her career would have gone if she hadn't married Hopper, Levin avoids sensationalistic speculation and, aside from occasional comments, sticks strictly to the facts.