Attributed to Edward Hopper
(American, 1882-1967)
Books, circa 1928
watercolor and graphite on wove paper laid to board
signed with brush lower left E HOPPER
sight 5 x 5in (13 x 13cm)
Provenance:
Property from a Private Nevada Collector.

Footnote:
Though unrecorded, this small watercolor sketch decries Edward Hopper's particular eye and craft including the often-deployed upward view perspective and the shadows that the artist so often sought, as in Early Sunday Morning, 1930 as well as the precise rendering of architectural details as in Skyline Near Washington Square, 1925, The City, 1927 and From Williamsburg Bridge, 1928, that here lend mystery and a sublime gravitas to this relatively simple composition study.

As a young man, in 1906, Hopper was hired by the New York ad agency C.C. Phillips as a staff illustrator. Under this employment his work appeared (many as covers), in popular magazines including Scribner's Magazine, Country Gentleman, The Morse Dial and the Wells Fargo Messenger among others. Though many pieces were narrative and commercial in nature, they none the less show Hopper's rapid stylistic growth over the next few years. This commercial work demanded a simplicity that he would carry into and throughout his later mature masterpieces.

frame 15 3/4 x 18in (40 x 45.5cm)