38
Jo insisted that she alone should pose for him, and for the rest of his life she modeled for all of his female figures. During the 1920s Hopper's mature painting style began to crystallize, perhaps
experience as an etcher.
as a result of his
his plates in his studio,
rather than
work
When Hopper
etched
he had to rely on memory or on sketches. Thus,
directly in front of his subject as he did in the early oils,
he giadually learned to invent his subject matter and composition in the studio— an etching such as 41).
His mature
oils
Monhegan Boat was based on
his recollection (Fig.
eventually became presentations of imagined images or
were based on simple sketches he made on location and synthesized in studio. .As his
mature
style
his
emerged, Hopper developed several compositional
formats which he frequently used throughout his career. These include a
simple frontal view parallel with the picture plane, a scene viewed at an angle from above, and a subject placed on an oblique diagonal axis cutting into the picture's depth.
window both
By
this time,
Hopper had experimented with views and out
an exterior space. The
through
a
window
served as both a romantic symbol of the expansive world beyond
and
a Isarrier
into an interior
to
separating the viewer-voyeur from the
drama
\vithin.
In his mature style can be seen the remarkable results of Hopper's youthful
experiments with
light.
Through
the skillful manipulation of light,
shadow, and tone, he could animate an entire composition.
and
strong,
and only occasionally would he
The
resort to the
light
is
clear
more obviously
evocative Tonalist effect of his early paintings like BlackiceU's Island or Atjierican Village (Pis. 124, 130).
Some
of Hopper's transitional paintings, such as Park Entrance of about
1918-20, which he exhibited in 1921 at the the stages in his
development of
sketchy and unresolved but, like
7x9
Edward Hopper, Monhegan Boat, 1919. Etching, Whitney Museum of .American ."Vrt, New York; Bequest Josephine N. Hopper. 70.1044 Fig. 41.
inches.
of
Fig. 42.
a
mattne
Summer
Whitney Studio Club, style.
Edward Hopper, House on
8 X 10 inches. Philadelphia
son Fund.
Park Entrance
Street of 1916,
.Museum
a Hill or
it
reveal is
still
was improvised
The Buggy. Etching, The Harri-
of Art: Purchased,