Edward Hopper Paints His World

Starred review from May 12, 2014
Burleigh and Minor (Abraham Lincoln Comes Home) pair up for another terrific profile of a famous American, this time artist Edward Hopper. Minor’s gouache watercolors (stunning works of art in their own right) echo Hopper’s evocative realism and clean lines. Full-color spreads and sketched b&w vignettes portray the artist from his youth to his old age, observing and painting his surroundings. From the boyhood room in which Hopper paints a lone sailboat on the Hudson River to the country gas station he captures at dusk in his famous painting, Gas, the illustrations convey the solitary tone of Hopper’s work. In many scenes, readers peer over Hopper’s shoulder as he works, seeing what he sees. The accessible narrative then invites the audience to think more critically about the context in which Hopper created. “Many houses in his paintings seem moody, quiet, and alone. Were Edward’s houses a bit like Edward himself?” A few of Hopper’s quotations about art are included in an afterword, along with reproductions of several well-known paintings. Sources, a bibliography, and an artist’s note wrap up this remarkable picture-book biography. Ages 5–9. (Aug.)■

Starred review from June 15, 2014
Two masters of illustrated, brief biographies for young people reunite (If You Spent a Day with Thoreau at Walden Pond, 2012) for this accessible introduction to an iconic 20th-century American realist.Their careful, almost developmental approach quickly transcends the provision of objective biographical facts (though they are all there in abundance) by first presenting Hopper's childhood pencil case-inscribed "Edward Hopper Would be Artist": five words that summarize a life story. It is evident that Burleigh and Minor are determined that readers both understand and see "the artist's process of discovery." Their decision to avoid reproductions of Hopper's work throughout reflects the essential understanding that Hopper's own paintings were never exact representations of a specific place at a specific time. Minor helps readers acquire both the sense and the sensibility of a Hopper work via his own charcoal-and-pencil studies of the paintings under consideration in Burleigh's thoughtful text. In this wonderfully illuminating way, they both help readers comprehend Hopper from the inside out: from the actual motifs, to the edited and combined studies, to the familiar, finished and admired paintings on the museum walls. Backmatter is particularly well-organized and inclusive.Well-researched and carefully paced, this is an enduring and inspiring book that will help kids to understand the why and the how of an artist at work. (Picture book/biography. 5-9)

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July 1, 2014

Gr 2-5-Hopper was one of the foremost American painters of the 20th century, and this wonderfully illustrated book provides a detailed biographical portrait of him. Minor's art, lush and perfectly varied with pencil sketches interspersed between colorful paintings, is accompanied by Burleigh's compelling text, which traces the artist's childhood in Nyack, NY, to his studies in Manhattan and Paris to his married life in New York City and Cape Cod, MA. Minor has reenvisioned many of Hopper's well-known works, placing Hopper in the picture, depicting the artisit as he surveys the scenes that inspired his paintings. Though Minor's interpretations are brighter, he hints at the dark and foreboding qualities for which Hopper was famous; Hopper's compositions are sad and lonely, leaving viewers to ponder the mysterious narrative. One might assume that Hopper's work was a mirror of his personal life. As the title states, he painted world as he saw it, yet in actuality his world and personal life was rather typical. Burleigh and Minor touch on this in the afterword, but they don't specifically address the contradiction between the darkness of his work and his seemingly normal personal life, which leaves a ripe subject for discussion among teachers and librarians and their creative readers. Additional back matter includes quotes about art from Hopper, miniature reproductions of four of Hopper's most famous works with discussion prompts, important dates, and a note on the illustrations from Minor.-Billy Parrott, New York Public Library

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2014
Grades 1-4 Full-page paintings reminiscent of Hopper originals accompany the straightforward text of this picture-book biography from the team behind Night Flight (2011). Burleigh introduces the introspective and determined artist in gentle paragraphs detailing Hopper's life, beginning with his childhood dream to become an artist, through to his last work, Sun in an Empty Room, as well as his struggle for notoriety in the twentieth-century art world and his reasons for painting I'm after ME. Minor's full-color gouache illustrations depict scenes that might have inspired Hopper for his most iconic paintingsa gas station on an empty road, a lighthouse, a diner, a deserted streetall in Hopper's distinctive, light-filled style. Other pages are filled with charcoal-gray sketches, as if drawn directly from an artist's notebook. Cleverly, in each spread where Hopper appears, he is always looking intently at something, which emphasizes how much his art arose from studied observation of the world around him. With a closing author's note, time line, and further reading, this is a lovely, quiet introduction to a luminary among American painters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)