Curator: Elizabeth
Thompson Colleary
Josephine
Nivison Hopper (1883-1968) was an established and respected artist in New York
City prior to her marriage in 1924 to Edward Hopper (1882-1967), a childless
union that would endure for forty-three years. Her paintings were shown in
prestigious exhibitions with the most admired European and American Modernists
of the day, among them Marsden Hartley, John Marin, Stuart Davis, and Pablo
Picasso.
Late
in her life she gave the watercolors included in this exhibition to her friend
and confidant, Rev. Arthayer Sanborn, for safekeeping and in gratitude for his
kindness in caring for her and for Edward toward the end of their lives. At the time, despite her travails and
setbacks as a devoted wife, and by then an overlooked artist, she retained her
cheerful persona. Indeed, in looking back on her work, Jo, who, like her
husband was a lifelong Francophile, described her works as “sacred relics of a grace de coeur (grace of heart)…they
have a certain innocence et noble orgueil
(and noble pride).”
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The
discovery in 2000 of the trove of watercolors, journals, and personal papers
that Rev. Sanborn had kept for more than thirty years lead to the discovery of
more works by Jo at the Whitney Museum of American Art and for the first time
it was possible to reconstruct her creative life as a dynamic artist in her own
right. In the ensuing years, more works by Jo have surfaced and have been
exhibited, and the importance of her role as a painting companion and muse in
her two-artist marriage is finally coming to the fore.
As
an accomplished artist who eagerly embraced the most current Modernist styles
of the day, much more so than her husband did, Jo captured in her vibrant and
lyrical watercolors favored objects and sunny views of the scenic locales that
she and Edward often painted side by side. They truly express her “grace of
heart” and happily, due to the efforts of her friend, Rev. Sanborn, they have
come down to us so that Jo’s artistic legacy can now be appreciated, studied,
and fully recognized.
