Edward Hopper (1882–1967)
Blackwell’s Island, 1928
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Recently acquired work by Hopper at Crystal Bridges Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art debuts ‘Blackwell’s Island’, an important and recently acquired work by American Modernist painter Edward Hopper (1882–1967).]]>
August 27th, 2013, source: Crystal Bridges Museum
The work, titled “Blackwell’s Island”, offers a view of what is now known as Roosevelt Island, located off Manhattan in the East River. The work will be exhibited in the museum’s Early Twentieth-Century Art Gallery, among works by other modern American masters such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler and George Bellows. Painted in 1928, Blackwell’s Island is among the largest of Hopper’s oil paintings, measuring 34-1/2 inches by 59-1/2 inches.
The painting features a wide expanse of blue sky above and turbulent cobalt blue water below, bisected by a shadowed, brooding skyline of buildings along the island’s waterfront. In classic Hopper style, there is a sense of distance between the viewer and the remote, impersonal architectural subject, and evidence of humanity is almost non-existent except for a single dark figure that pilots a power boat cruising away from the viewer toward the right-hand edge of the frame.
“Blackwell’s Island” was offered for sale at Christie’s American Art sale on May 23rd, 2013, selling for $19 million. Crystal Bridges President Don Bacigalupi described the work as “a most ambitious composition for Hopper“.
Related content
Christie’s to sell Edward Hopper’s ‘Blackwell’s Island’ (news, April 2013)
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