EDWARD HOPPER
Figure Studies (Pennsylvania Coal Town).
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1945. 280x215 mm; 11¼x8½ inches.Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist's widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; private collection, New York; private collection, Pennsylvania.Exhibited: "Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions," Provincetown Art Association and Museum, Provincetown, Massachusetts, May 21-July 4, 2010, and Berta Walker Gallery, Provincetown, Massachusetts, July 30-September 5, 2010; "A Window into Edward Hopper," Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, New York, May 28-September 11, 2011.Published: Edward Hopper (1882-1967): Early Impressions, Provincetown, 2010, catalogue number 26 (illustrated); Troyen, A Window into Edward Hopper, Cooperstown, 2011, page 28, figure 26 (illustrated).Each of the sketches on this sheet of ink drawings, except for the figure upper left of the boy in shorts, appear to be studies for Hopper's (1882-1967) oil painting Pennsylvania Coal Town, 1947, now in the Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio. There are several studies of the lone character in the oil painting, the standing man holding what appears to be a rake, as well as detail studies of the man's arm and rake handle and the urn planter. According to the Butler Institute of American Art, "Pennsylvania Coal Town is a relatively late work [by Hopper] . . . You can hear the echoes of loneliness and isolation, a prevalent theme in many of his works (Automat, 1927; Nighthawks,1942; Hotel by a Railroad, 1952, for example), in this depiction of a man raking leaves outside his home. With a few deft strokes of the brush, Hopper’s man can be seen gazing off at something beyond our view—capturing a place and time which conveys stillness, solitude, and an eerie silence.