worldpaintings:

Edward Hopper

 Jo In Wyoming, 1946, 35.4 x 50.8 cm, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC.

Edward Hopper’s artist wife, Jo, was his only model and was crucial to his success. When she married Edward Hopper, Josephine Nivison was 41, and had been painting successfully for 16 years. When the Hoppers got married, their influences fused to curious effect: as his palette borrowed some of her bright hues he became a runaway success, and when she began to emulate his style she lost all recognition. In the absence of personal reward Jo Hopper exerted such control over Edward Hopper’s work that she came to see it as a collaboration. They had no biological offspring, but Jo repeatedly referred to her husband’s paintings as their “children”.