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.

Pumping Bellows

We went to the Manet Exhibition last month at the Royal Academy. Now, it wasn't bad, but I have to say I don't think it justified the hype.  There were one or two really great portraits - like the Berthe Morrisot that was (over) used to advertise the show.  But overall there were too many not-quite-good-enough works, of dour-looking men in suits, that didn't excite.  And because of the hype it was too crowded.

And then we went upstairs to the George Bellows - which is a show that is still on, and almost empty when we went. Smaller, focussed and much, much more wonderful.  Almost all of the works you'd want to see are there, hanging up high in the Sackler Gallery, floating above the sour, dour Manets.  The colour, composition and narrative excitement of these paintings are a wonder.  I'm so pleased to have had the chance to see them.

My only reservation is a sense that the RA is a bit hesitant about the show.  It isn't that well advertised;  people seem surprised when you tell them about it.  There is only one large poster on sale associated with the event - although, admittedly, a ravishing New York street scene and landscape, it is not enough.

Anyway I bought it of course, and took to the Thames Gallery on the East Dulwich Road to get framed.  They loved it when I took it in.

And then, when I picked it up they said that two more had come in for framing... do I detect a small South London Bellows Burn? 

(PS: This is a different landscape... I'd love a print of it  *hint*)