1882
July 22: Edward Hopper is born in Nyack, New York, to Garrett Henry Hopper (1853–1913), a dry-goods merchant, and Elizabeth Griffiths Smith Hopper (1856–1935).
1900–1905
Enrolled at New York School of Art. Studies illustration with Frank Vincent DuMond and Arthur I. Keller and painting with William Merritt Chase, Robert Henri, and Kenneth Hayes Miller.
Fall 1906–August 1907
Lives in Paris through June 1907, then visits London, Amsterdam, Berlin, and Brussels.
1906–1925
Works as an illustrator for C. C. Phillips & Co., Sherman and Bryan, and other New York advertising agencies.
1908
Moves permanently to New York City. Exhibits in small shows in New York organized by Henri over the next decade.
1909
March–July: In Paris
1910
May–June: Travels to Paris and Madrid.
1913
Fall: Begins painting ledger, the record of his artistic output that he will maintain for the rest of his career (assisted, after 1924, by his wife, Jo).
December: Moves to top floor of 3 Washington Square North, the building that would be his studio and home for the rest of his life.
1915
Takes up printmaking.
1920
January: Hopper’s friend and fellow painter Guy Pène du Bois organizes Hopper’s first solo show at the Whitney Studio Club, New York, which includes 16 oils. The exhibition generates no sales and little critical attention.
1921
Consigns prints for the first time to the New York art dealer Frank K. M. Rehn, who will represent Hopper for the rest of his career.
1922
October: Solo show at the Whitney Studio Club includes 10 watercolors and a group of prints.
1923
February: Chicago Society of Etchers annual exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago includes two Hopper prints. East Side Interior receives the Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan Prize and is acquired by the museum, becoming the first work by Hopper to enter the collection.
Summer: Visits Gloucester, Massachusetts, where he paints more than 17 watercolors and meets Josephine Verstille Nivison (1883–1968).
November: Exhibits six watercolors at the Brooklyn Museum, including The Mansard Roof.
1924
July 9: Marries Jo Nivison. Guy Pène du Bois is best man.
Summer: Visits Gloucester
October: Recent Watercolors by Edward Hopper opens at Frank K. M. Rehn Galleries and includes 11 watercolors. Painter George Bellows buys Haskell’s House.
1925
The Metropolitan Museum of Art buys 15 Hopper etchings.
February: Annual Exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, includes Apartment Houses , which the Pennsylvania Academy buys. This is Hopper’s first sale of an oil to a museum.
September: Gives up illustration.
1926
Summer: Works in Rockland, Maine, and Gloucester through October.
November: Important collector of American modernism, Duncan Phillips, buys Sunday (now Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.).
1927
Duncan Phillips buys The City.
February: Hopper’s second solo show with Rehn.
Summer: Purchases first automobile and summers in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, also visiting Portland and Ogunquit.
1928
Summer: Visits Gloucester, where he paints 13 watercolors and 3 oils.
November: Exhibition of his watercolors at the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford.
1929
January: Solo show at Rehn Galleries comprises 12 oils, 10 watercolors, and a group of drawings.
February: Forbes Watson’s important, early article on Hopper, “A Note on Edward Hopper,” is published in Vanity Fair.
Summer: To Cape Elizabeth, Maine, after a brief stop in Pemaquid Point, Maine.
December: Paintings by Nineteen Living Americans at the Museum of Modern Art contains six Hoppers, including Automat, Blackwell’s Island, Freight Cars, Gloucester, The Lighthouse at Two Lights, and House of the Fog Horn, I .
1930
January: Stephen C. Clark gives House by Railroad to the Museum of Modern Art. It is the first oil by any artist to enter MoMA’s permanent collection.
May: The Whitney Museum buys Early Sunday Morning.
Summer: First visit to Truro, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The Hoppers will spend almost every summer there (often staying into the fall) for the rest of their lives.
1931
Guy Pène du Bois’s monograph Edward Hopper is published by the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of its American Artists Series.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art buys Tables for Ladies .
March: In the catalogue for the exhibition German Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, Alfred H. Barr, Jr., aligns Hopper (as well as several other American artists including Charles Sheeler) with the New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) movement.
1932
Moves to a larger space on the top floor of 3 Washington Square North.
November: First Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art includes Room in New York. Hopper will participate in nearly every Whitney biennial and annual for the rest of his career.
1933
May: A Century of Progressat the Art Institute of Chicago includes Automat and four Hopper watercolors.
October: Buys land in South Truro, Massachusetts.
November: Edward Hopper: Retrospective Exhibitionat the Museum of Modern Art, organized by Alfred H. Barr, Jr., includes 25 oils, 37 watercolors, and 11 etchings.
1934
January: Edward Hopper: Retrospective Exhibitiontravels to the Arts Club of Chicago.
July: House in Truro is finished.
1937
March: An Exhibition of Paintings, Water Colors, and Etchings by Edward Hopper, a solo show at the Carnegie Institute, comprises 32 oils, 53 watercolors, and 11 etchings.
1938
October: The Art Institute of Chicago’s Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture includes Compartment C, Car 293, which the museum then purchases (and later returns in partial payment for Nighthawks).
1939
March: Eighteenth International Exhibition: Water Colors, Pastels, Drawings and Monotypes at the Art Institute of Chicago includes 26 Hopper watercolors (most from the 1920s) in a special retrospective display.
1941
May–July: Drives to California and back, then to Truro.
November: Arnold Newman photographs Hopper.
1942
October: The Art Institute of Chicago’s Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture includes Nighthawks , which wins the Ada S. Garrett Prize and is bought by the Friends of American Art for the museum.
1943
February: American Realists and Magic Realists at the Museum of Modern Art contains three Hoppers including Cape Cod Evening and Office at Night . Hopper and Charles Sheeler are called “pioneers of the new direction.”
Late June–September: Fuel rationing prevents car trip to Truro, so the Hoppers travel to Mexico by train, visiting Mexico City, Saltillo, and Monterey. He would return to Mexico in 1946, 1951, and 1952.
October: Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture at the Art Institute of Chicago includes special installation of 21 Hopper oils.
1945
February: American Watercolor and Winslow Homer at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, organized by Lloyd Goodrich, includes 19 painters. Among living artists, Hopper (with nine works) and John Marin have the largest representation.
1948
February: New Paintings to Know and Buy, at the Walker Art Center includes Office at Night , which the Walker buys.
1949
Lloyd Goodrich’s monograph Edward Hopper is published by Penguin Books.
January: Berenice Abbott photographs Hopper in his studio. Art News publishes “The Year’s Best: 1948” and chooses Hopper’s solo show at Rehn’s galleries as well as exhibitions of the work of Alberto Giacometti, Jacques Lipchitz, Pablo Picasso, and Kurt Seligmann for the category “five best solo shows of the year.”
1950
Awarded honorary degree by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
February: Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibitionat the Whitney Museum of American Art, organized by Lloyd Goodrich, comprises 73 oils, 60 watercolors, 22 etchings, and 17 drawings. Exhibition travels to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Detroit Institute of Arts.
1952
With about 40 other figurative artists, joins Reality, a group protesting the emphasis on abstract art by museums, especially the Museum of Modern Art.
June: With Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, and Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Hopper represents the United States at the Venice Biennale. Shows 15 oils and 5 watercolors.
1953
Spring: Reality: A Journal of Artists’ Opinions is published and includes statements by Hopper.
1956
May: Hopper is inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
December: Wins Huntington Hartford Foundation Award, which provides six months’ residency at the foundation’s headquarters in Pacific Palisades, California.
1960
Arnold Newman photographs Hopper in front of his house in South Truro.
December: Hopper receives Art in America annual award for “outstanding contribution to American art.”
1963
June: Critic Brian O’Doherty and photographer Hans Namuth visit Hopper in Truro; Namuth makes a series of photographs of Hopper at work.
1964
September: Edward Hopper, at the Whitney Museum of American Art includes 74 oils, 62 watercolors, 27 etchings, and 21 drawings. The retrospective travels to the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the City Art Museum, St. Louis.
1967
May 15: Dies in New York City at age 84. When Jo Hopper dies the next year, she bequeaths the Hopper estate of more than 3,000 works to the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Berenice Abbott. Edward Hopper, Greenwich Village, New York, 1947/48. Gelatin silver print. The Art Institute of Chicago; Peabody Fund. © Berenice Abbott/Commerce Graphics, New York City.