CUSTOMary Steps with Hopper

CUSTOMary Steps 

by the Custom House on Commercial Street, Portland, Maine, on the National Register of Historic Places, on June 1, 2023, painted June 4, 2023, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed, $300, for sale online at my art blog

Edward Hopper
Art Series Conclusion
Portland, Maine

Custom House, Portland
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Watercolor on paper, 20" x 14" (w x h), 1927
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT

Portland's grand, granite Custom House, built after the Great Fire of July 4, 1866, from 1868 to 1872 as a fireproof structure, looks virtually identical today as when Hopper saw it 96 years ago in 1927. It's architecture is distinctive and remains on the US National Register of Historic Places. Though in Maine and painting many coastal scenes, Hopper's familiarity with painting New York city scenes perhaps played into his choice to paint this urban Maine scene of the Custom House and slope of Pearl Street. The building with the chimneys is the Knight Brothers brass foundry located on the corner with Custom House Street. It was formerly The Friendly Inn, run by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. This building is long gone, replaced with a large glass-windowed building.

Edward and his wife Jo stayed in nearby Cape Elizabeth that summer, painting his many works of the coast and Lighthouse at Two Lights.

Cars and Rocks
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h), 1927
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

In 1927 the Hoppers purchased a used 1925 Dodge and drove to Maine. Jo didn't consider Edward a very good driver. She eventually got her driver's license despite Edwards attempt to thwart this.

Christmas Card - 1929
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Collage on paper, 6" x 3", 1929
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

After Edward and Jo Hopper spent their 1927 and 1929 summers at Cape Elizabeth, Maine amid the lighthouses and his paintings of them, their 1929 Christmas card was a collage of a lighthouse by Edward.

Strange but True Fact: Of the many Edward Hopper paintings and sketches, there are landscapes, cityscapes, and seascapes, there are men and women, his wife Jo his main model, but hardly none, if any, of children in his art painted when he was an adult.

Sketched when Edward Hopper was a teenager, 13-17 year-old, circa 1895-1899

Study of a Crying Child
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Graphite pencil on paper,
3" x 5" (w x h), circa 1895-1899
Whitney Museum of Fine Art, New York, NY

Still Light at Two Lights 2023

Still Light
at Two Lights 2023

where Edward Hopper painted in
1929 at Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine by
the now Lobster Shack, plein air on May 26, 2023,
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light
fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade
proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white watercolor paper,
framed, $150, for sale online at my art blog

Edward Hopper Art

Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Light at Two Lights
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h), 1927
Whitney Museum of American Art

The Lighthouse at Two Lights
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Oil on canvas, 43" x 30" (w x h), 1929
The MET, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

This was the second time, 1929, that Edward and Jo Hopper summered in Cape Elizabeth, a pleasurable respite from New York City. He'd painted in this area extensively in the summer of 1927. This was his painting with knowledge, having worked out many of approaches. The perspectives, the light, the shadows, the colors, the clouds in the sky, are now refined in this oil painting. It was this painting that would be chosen to honor 150 years of Maine's statehood in 1970 on a U.S. postage stamp.

Cape Elizabeth, 1970 U.S. postage stamp
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
The year Edward Hopper painted The Lighthouse at Two Lights, U.S. first class postage was two cents. Forty-one years later, three years after Hopper's 1967 passing, in 1970, the year this painting appeared on a U.S. first class stamp, postage was only six cents in 1970. Fifty three years later in 2023 a first class postage stamp is sixty-three cents.

U.S. First Class Postage
1929: 2 cents
1970: 6 cents
2023: 63 cents

This is only one of five U.S. first class stamps that Edward Hopper's paintings were on. The four other paintings that appear on US stamps are:

U.S. First Class Postage Stamp 2020, 55 cents

Sea at Ogunquit
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Oil on canvas, 29" x 24" (w x h), 1914
Whitney Museum of Art, New York

Hopper's art not only appeared on the 150th Maine statehood stamp but another painting on the 200th Maine statehood.

U.S. First Class Postage Stamp 2011, 41 cents

The Long Leg
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Oil on canvas, 30" x 20" (w x h), 1935
The Huntington Library, Art Museum,
and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California

U.S. First Class Postage Stamp 1998, 32 cents

Automat
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Oil on canvas, 35" x 28" (w x h), 1927
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA

U.S. First Class Postage Stamp 1998, 32 cents

Nighthawks
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Oil on canvas, 60" x 33" (w x h), 1942
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Only a part of this painting appeared on the stamp, featuring the three central figures. Hopper's paintings have also appeared on foreign stamps including these countries: Åland (Finland), Eritrea, France, Guinea, Maldives, and Togo.

Strange but True Fact:
Of the five US postage stamps featuring Edward Hopper art, two of them painted in Maine, 1914 and 1929, none of them included any of the many paintings from his summers on Maine's iconic Monhegan Island, 1916-1919.

Light at Two Lights Beach in 2023

Light at
Two Lights Beach
in 2023

After Edward Hoppers sketches of this scene from this place, Dyer Point, on May 26, 2023, 14" x 11" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lbs. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$500

My plein air setup May 26, 2023 at Dyer Point, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, the same place where Edward Hopper sketched and painted in 1927.

Edward Hopper at Two Lights

Edward Hopper
at Two Lights in 1927

The following five views are views in a clockwise view around the Light at Two Lights, starting with this view looking northwest from Dyer Point to the other side looking east-northeast.

Light at Two Lights
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Chalk and charcoal on paper, 16" x 15" (w x h), 1927
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Edward Hopper's wife Jo wrote that Hopper's "lighthouses are self-portraits." Likely, she was referring to his tall singular figure and reserved personality. Perhaps that's also insight into the fact that of the many New England lighthouse paintings of Edward Hopper only one, includes figures, four men wearing hats in Pemaquid Light, watercolor, 1929, Portland Museum of Art.

Lighthouse Hill
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Oil on canvas, 40" x 29" (w x h), 1927
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX

Light at Two Lights
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h), 1927

May 26, 2023, view looking northeast up the street to the private residence at Two lights Lighthouse at dusk.

Captain Upton's House
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Oil on canvas, 36" x 28" (w x h), 1927
Private Collection, Steve Martin

Steve Martin:
"I have lived with a few great paintings (Captain Upton's House being the best among them)... I was startled when I eventually focused on the five angled plates of glass in the lighthouse reflecting an afternoon sun. From left to right, one is a dark blue-gray, showing a dimmed sky. The next is a strike of unbroken paint as white as the lighthouse itself - pure glare. The next is an unexpected pane of bright orange, a refracted sun; then a darker orange, and then darker still as the glass wraps around the tower." - Painting on loan, catalogue, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, 2011

Hopper Fog Horn House Study 1

Hopper Fog Horn House Study 1

at Dyer Point where Edward Hopper painted in 1929 at Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine by the now Lobster Shack, painted plein air on May 26, 2023, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

More Edward Hopper Art at Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine

Fog Horn House, Dyer Point, Cape Elizabeth, Maine on May 26, 2023

Another view...painted by Hopper...

House of the Fog Horn, No. 2
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Watercolor over graphite pencil on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h), 1927
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Fog Horn House, Dyer Point, Cape Elizabeth, Maine from this other side on May 26, 2023

And another artist's view...

Dyer Point
Sara Gray (1963- ), American
Oil on panel, 6" x 6" (w x h), 2019
See a video of Sara painting HERE during the pandemic.

Hopper Fog Horn House Study 2

Hopper Fog Horn House Study 2

at Dyer Point where Edward Hopper painted in 1929 at Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine by the now Lobster Shack, painted plein air on May 26, 2023, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

Edward Hopper Art, Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine

House of the Fog Horn, No. 3
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Watercolor, with graphite, 20" x 14" (w x h), 1929
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Gift of George Hopper Fitch, B.A. 1932,
art collector and benefactor

No relation to Edward Hopper, George Hopper Fitch (1909-2004), benefactor of this painting to Yale University,  was an art lover and museum benefactor with his collection of Native American miniatures, watercolors, and photographs. He served on the board of the Yale University Art Gallery and was a trustee of the San Francisco Fine Art Museum.

The 1929 house scene and landscape, and 1929 watercolor, would stand the test of time, almost a hundred years, but not so the tall chimney, by 2023 not so tall with an uneven top. Landscape and architecture, common themes in Edward Hopper paintings, are painted together in this watercolor. Shadows define both the landscape and house on this sunny day in 1929 at Dyer Cove in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. Edward and his wife, Jo, drove from their apartment home at 3 Washington Square North, Greenwich Village, New York City in their Dodge to spend the summer vacationing and painting in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.

My plein air setup at Dyer Point by the Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth,
including my copy of Edward Hopper's Maine, Kevin Salatino, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Prestel Publishing, New York, 2011.

Dyer Point

Dyer Point

where Edward Hopper painted in 1929 at Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine by the now Lobster Shack, plein air on May 26, 2023, 7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$150

Edward Hopper - Dyer Cove

- History and Art -
Edward Hopper
Dyer Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine
Summers - 1927 and 1929

"I come here to rest and to paint a little," said Edward Hopper while in Maine.

Edward Hopper and his wife Jo lived in New York, and drove in their new Dodge to Cape Elizabeth, Maine to stay and paint in 1927 and again in 1929, arriving on July 4th.

1
Rocks and Cove
(Dyer Cove and Dyer Point in the distance)
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper,
18" x 12" (w x h), 1929

Dyer Point in the distance across Dyer Cove, is the same place in the Postcard poem photo. After painting my watercolor, Dyer Point (above), I discovered Hopper's painting of the same small point of land.

Hopper painted his watercolor from the southwest shore of Dyer Cove, while I painted mine on Dyer Point (next posting), standing in the middle of the red oval looking to the end of the point, two different perspectives.

2
Coast Guard Cove
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Watercolor and pencil on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h), 1929
Christies 2023 auction sold $1,986,000 USD
From the Paul Allen Collection

This Coast Guard boat at Dyer Cover is also see below in a postcard and another watercolor...

Note the small building on the slope of the Two Lights Lighthouse. It appears in a second watercolor of Dyer Cove and a postcard circa 1920s-1930s below.

3
Rocky Cove II
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Watercolor and graphite pencil on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h), 1929
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

The northwest view across Dyer Cove, note the small building on the Two Lights lighthouse. slope.

The Coast Guard Station is painted red in this old postcard, date unknown. Note the building on the slope on the other side of Dyer Cove.

4
Coast Guard Station, Two Lights, Maine
Edward Hopper (1882-1967, American
Watercolor, gouache and charcoal on paper,
20" x 14" (w x h) 1927
The MET, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

Built in 1887, the Public Works Administration funded a project in 1933 to rebuild the station buildings. The station was still an active until July 1964, when it was turned over to General Services Administration.

Postcard circa 1920s-1930s of Dyer's Cove featuring the Coast Guard Station and ramp, both not here in 2023. It's now a parking lot where I parked my car and noticed the cement outlines of a foundation, though at the time I had no clue that its was the former Coast Guard Station. However, I noted the square building on the right, built after 1925, and it's surrounding chain link railing, possibly still part of the government property.

The coast guard boat in this 1920s-1930s postcard is likely the same boat that Hopper painted in 1929, below...

5
Coast Guard Boat I
Edward Hopper (1882-1967), American
Watercolor and pencil on paper, 20" x 14" (w x h), 1929
Christies 2014 auction sold $1,745,000 USD

The beach at Dyer Cove is still here.

Trott's Island Spring Study 3

Trott's Island Spring Study 3

in Cape Porpoise Harbor, Kennebunkport, Maine, plein air May 10, 2023, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

Paul Cézanne Watercolors - Light Touch

Paul Cézanne Watercolors
with a Light Touch

Cézanne turned to watercolor painting in his later years. Empty spaces and simplification led to his minimalism with color that appears complete.

1
Dans les bois / In the Woods
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor on paper, circa 1900
Private Collection

Excerpt from Wendy Welch, Vancouver Island School of Art edited:
This is an example of how the repetition of abstracted shapes and lines gives the effect of a complex forest. The simplicity of this work, allows the viewer to trace each of the singular brush marks made by Cezanne throughout the construction of this painting. There is a beautiful purity in the use of transparent watercolor; every shape and mark made can be seen. It's deceptively simple. As with most of his watercolors, this painting reveals a complex transition and layering of space leaving the color of the paper to exist as foreground, middle ground and background.

2
Paysage en Provence / Landscape in Provence
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor on paper, 12" x 16" (w x h), 1900-04
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France

3
Paysage avec arbres / Landscape with Trees
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor and pencil on paper,
8" x 5" (w x h), circa 1885-1890
Sothebys March 2023 UK auction estimate,
$125,000 - $185,000 USD

Excerpt from Sothebys notes edited:
Paul Cézanne's sketchbooks are a personal insight into the artist's working process. Not intended for the public, and therefore unguarded, these sketches show the experimental spirit of the artist. Cézanne rejects the conventional means of rendering perspective. Depth and volume are created through shape and color, demonstrating a new approach to spatial arrangement, a turning point in the history of art. It heralds Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque's later development of Cubism.

Cézanne's son was the original owner of the present work, keeping it in his personal collection until it ultimately found its way to the UK's Sir Kenneth Clark. Clark helped to save the nation's art collection during the WWII Blitz by driving trucks full of art to caves in the Welsh mountains. Eventually David Lindsay, 28th Earl of Crawford, acquired this work from Clark, where it was auctioned in 2023.

4
Corner of Lake Annecy / Coin du lac d'Annecy
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor on Arches paper, 1900
Private Collection

5
La Montagne Sainte-Victoire vue des Lauves /
Mount Sainte-Victoire seen from the Lauves
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor and graphite on paper,
21" x 19" (w x h), circa 1902-06
Sothebys May 2023 auction estimate
$4,000,000 - $6,000,000 USD
Private collection

Excerpt from Sotheby's note edited:
In 1901 Cézanne bought land at Les Lauves, where he built a studio and moved in the autumn of the following year. This was painted from his studio. While areas of watercolor suggest undulations in the mountain and the subtle effects of light and shadow caused by them, the white, unpainted areas of the sheet evoke the imposing volume of the rocks.

In 1904 Emile Bernard arrived on Paul Cézanne's doorstep. Cezanne, the older artist, was on his way out to paint and invited Bernard to accompany him. They went from Cézanne's home to his studio, where Cézanne collected his watercolor materials, and then headed out for a view of a valley at the foot of Sainte-Victoire. Peering over his shoulder while talking, Bernard watched as Cézanne built up his watercolor with patches of translucent color. "His method was unique, excessively complicated, and totally different from usual techniques. He began on the shadows with a single patch, which he then overlapped with a second, larger one; and then with a third one, until these patches, which produced screens, modeled the object by way of coloring it."

6
Rochers Près des Grottes
au-dessus de Château Noir /
Rocks Near the Caves above Château Noir
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor and pencil on paper,
19" x 13" (w x h), 1895-1900
MoMA, New York, NY

7
Feuillage / Foliage
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor and pencil on paper,
22" x 18" (w x h), 1895
MoMA, New York, NY

Excerpt from MoMA notes edited:
Cezanne's late watercolors like this "are acts of construction in color." Here he applied discrete unblended lines and patches of color around lightly sketched pencil contours and built depth from color by translating dark-light gradations into cool-warm ones. In this mosaic, colored lines and planes and overlapping shades fix the depth of the subject. In this way Cezanne redefined modern drawing according to color "modulation", his term for that which enabled him not only to capture the light of his native southern France, but also to his approach with abstraction.

8
Route avec arbres sur une pente /
Road with Trees on a Slope
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906), French
Watercolor and graphite on paper,
12" x 19" (w x h), 1904
Beyeler Foundation, Riehen, Switzerland

Trott's Island Spring Study 2

Trott's Island Spring Study 2

in Cape Porpoise Harbor, Kennebunkport, Maine, plein air May 10, 2023, 10" x 8" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$300

My May 10, 202s plein air palette setup at Cape Porpoise.

Trott's Island Spring Study 1

Trott's Island Spring Study 1

in Cape Porpoise Harbor, Kennebunkport, Maine, plein air May 10, 2023, 14" x 11" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper, framed.
$500

Artist shadowing the Cape Porpoise plein air setup on May 10, 2023... Goat Island Light seen in the far right distance.