The end of summer is when children have to temporarily put aside their toys to put on their school uniforms, dragging their parents along on the journey to regain the rhythm of daily life. Meanwhile, adults are once again struggling to find rhythm and real connections in a world full of loneliness. No artist expressed that feeling more skillfully than Edward Hopper through his masterpiece painting Sea Watchers.
Born in New York with mixed Dutch, English, French and Welsh blood, Edward Hopper nurtured a passion for art from a very early age. His talent was encouraged by his family, although not entirely impartially: Hopper’s parents allowed him to study art with the implicit condition that he would pursue the path of illustration – a profession enough to support himself. Later, he became more widely known as a painter, famous for his paintings depicting urban life that are both peaceful and somewhat melancholy. Nighthawks is one of his most typical works.
With a tall and thin figure, Hopper is known as a quiet person. That’s why every time he speaks, it’s often something worth listening to and pondering. Looking back at his works today, we can clearly feel Hopper’s special ability to capture loneliness, in an era when people felt much less lonely than today, although perhaps they were still lonely in their own ways.
With Sea Watchers, why do the two people in the painting look so thoughtful even though they are in the middle of a beautiful natural scene? Maybe it’s because Hopper got married quite late. Both he and his wife – artist Josephine Verstille Nivison – were over 40 years old when they got married. Both of them had already more or less established their own lifestyles, and finding a common rhythm was not easy. Perhaps this painting is a reflection of that tension, or more broadly, the feeling of distance that we sometimes feel even when we are with the closest people.
For many people, summer seems like a scary and lonely time, far different from what it was once imagined to be. Many people continue to wonder and ponder about their true talents – whether when you’re staring blankly at the horizon like the couple in Hopper’s painting or when you’re staring out the window at a quiet street.
Lesson: Navigator Media
