Rooms by the Sea Artist: Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967)

1951

American Paintings and Sculpture

On view, 3rd floor, Modern and Contemporary Art and Design

As a mature artist, Edward Hopper spent most of his summers on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. There, he designed and built a sunny, secluded studio at Truro, on a bluff overlooking the water. The view in Rooms by the Sea resembles what Hopper would have seen out the back door of his studio. But the description that he gave this painting in his notebook—"The Jumping Off Place"—suggests that the image is more a metaphor of solitude and introspection than a depiction of the actual place. Like Hopper’s most arresting images, this scene seems to be realistic, abstract, and surrealistic all at once.

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

29 1/4 × 40 in. (74.3 × 101.6 cm)

Credit Line

Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903

Accession Number

1961.18.29

Geography

Made in United States

Culture

American

Period

20th century

Classification

Paintings

Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance
Josephine Hopper (1883–1968), Truro, Mass.; Mary Schiffenhaus, New York; Frank M. Capazzera, New York; Peter Findlay Gallery, New York; Stephen Carlton Clark (1882–1960), New York, to 1961; bequeathed to the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Conn., 1961
Bibliography
  • American Art: Selections from the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023), 230–231, 233, no. 109, ill
  • Robert Hobbs, Edward Hopper & Dike Blair : Gloucester (New York: Karma, 2022), p. 8, ill
  • Robert Adams, Art Can Help (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2017), 12, ill
  • Matthew Monteith, "The Explainers," in "Teaching with Art," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2013), 52
  • Pamela Franks, Jessica Sack, and John Walsh, "Looking to Learn, Learning to Teach," in "Teaching with Art," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2013), 46–47, fig. 8
  • Isabelle Dervaux, Tiffany Bell, and Jennifer C. Raab, Dan Flavin Drawing, exh. cat. (Germany: Morgan Library and Museum, 2012), 37, fig. Fig. 1
  • Karin Ivancsics, Restplatzborse (Weitra, Austria: Bibliothek der Provinz, 2011), ill. cover
  • Carl Little, Edward Hopper's New England (Petaluma, Calif.: Pomegranate Commmunications, Inc., 2011), 87, fig. 33
  • Thomas Dumm, Apologia Della Solitudine (Torino, Italy: Bollati Boringhieri, 2010), ill. cover
  • Arne Neset, Arcadian Waters and Wanton Seas: The Iconology of Waterscapes in Nineteenth-Century Transatlantic Culture, 36 (New York: Peter Lang, 2009), 238, no. 10.1
  • Jody A. Zorgdrager, Of Consequence (Omaha, Neb.: Backwaters Press, 2008), ill. cover
  • Philip Eliasoph, Robert Vickrey: The Magic of Realism (Manchester, Vt.: Hudson Hills Press, 2008), 23, ill
  • Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson, Transatlantic Women's Literature, eds. Susan Manning and Andrew Taylor (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008), ill. cover, ill
  • Connie Smith Siegel, Spirit of Drawing: A Sensory Meditation Guide to Creative Expression (New York: Watson-Guptill, 2007), 151, ill
  • Nicholas Fox Weber, The Clarks of Cooperstown: Their Singer Sewing Machine Fortune, Their Great and Influential Art Collections, Their Forty-Year Feud (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007), ill
  • Carol L. Troyen et al., Edward Hopper, exh. cat. (Verona, Italy: MFA Publications, 2007), 216, no. 86, ill
  • Michael Conforti et al., The Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings, exh. cat. (Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 2006), 186–87, 287, 289, 316, 332, fig. 151
Object copyright
.
In Copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

interior architecture, seascapes

Subject

light oceans sunlight water

Signed

Signed lower left "EDWARD HOPPER"

Technical metadata and APIs

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