Northshore Magazine: Hopper Comes to Cape Ann

September 5, 2023

In late July, the Cape Ann Museum in Gloucester opened the single most comprehensive collection of work by renowned artist Edward Hopper outside of the Whitney Museum, including some 66 pieces of artwork. What makes this exhibition unique and significant, however, far exceeds the number of pieces on display.  

Hopper’s catalog of work across the scope of his career is firmly cemented in the watercolors he created during his time on Cape Ann, says museum director Oliver Barker. The works that have been chosen for this exhibit give a glimpse into Hopper’s history of visiting Cape Ann, and how those visits crystallized his voice as an influential American artist. “They’re instrumental in telling the story of this singularly unique place,” Barker says.

The exhibit “marks the centennial of the summer of 1923 when Edward Hopper created watercolors that earned his first critical acclaim and laid the foundation for future success as one of the greatest 20th century American landscape painters,” Barker adds. Exhibit curator Elliot Bostwick Davis, Ph.D., points to Hopper’s Gloucester watercolors as “transformational of his work and setting the stage for his monumental career.”

Read the entire article here.