Hoppers

So the £25,000 Walter Scott prize for the year's best historical novel has gone to Christine Dwyer Hickey's The Narrow Land which depicts the marriage of Jo and Edward Hopper.

Josephine Nivison was an artist in her own right, and studied originally under Robert Henri, who taught many of the 'Ashcan' artists.  This is his portrait of her:

The Art Student (Miss Josephine Nivison) (1906)

She had a reputation for being direct and questioning, which Henri manages to capture in the painting.  He called her a 'human question mark.'

This is a portrait of her by Edward Hopper, 30 years after the Henri:

Jo Painting (1936)

 And this, 16 years later still:

Morning Sun (1952)

And apparently she also appears in his most famous painting:

Nighthawks (1942)

But I'm not really that much of a Hopper fan.  I prefer Henri's painting.

As for her own art works, few survive, and she does not have a great reputation as an artist.  She wrote many diaries during her marriage with Hopper, which Dwyer Hickey apparently uses in her novel.

Maybe I'll get a copy.