Edward Hopper Family Home and House Museum Offer New Ways to See His Art

‘Give me the child until he’s seven and I’ll show you the man” is sometimes attributed to Aristotle, though it’s usually considered a Jesuit maxim today. It does sound Jesuitical, doesn’t it? What about the child — and man — from birth to age 28? That would mean Edward Hopper (1892–1967) and Nyack, his hometown on the Hudson River 20 miles north of Inwood in Manhattan. There, Hopper was born in the part–Greek Revival, part–Queen Anne house, nothing fancy, on 82 North Broadway, one of Nyack’s main drags. Today it’s the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Most people call it Hopper House. I had a good visit there last week.

As a young man, Hopper made two long and decisive trips to Paris, but the house his grandfather built in 1858, where his parents lived and died, and where he grew up, was home until he got an apartment in 1910 at 3 Washington Square in Manhattan, where he died in 1967. Hopper owned the family house until his death, having inherited it from his unmarried sister, who lived there until she died, in 1965.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

‘Give me the child until he’s seven and I’ll show you the man” is sometimes attributed to Aristotle, though it’s usually considered a Jesuit maxim today. It does sound Jesuitical, doesn’t it? What about the child — and man — from birth to age 28? That would mean Edward Hopper (1892–1967) and Nyack, his hometown on the Hudson River 20 miles north of Inwood in Manhattan. There, Hopper was born in the part–Greek Revival, part–Queen Anne house, nothing fancy, on 82 North Broadway, one of Nyack’s main drags. Today it’s the Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center. Most people call it Hopper House. I had a good visit there last week.

As a young man, Hopper made two long and decisive trips to Paris, but the house his grandfather built in 1858, where his parents lived and died, and where he grew up, was home until he got an apartment in 1910 at 3 Washington Square in Manhattan, where he died in 1967. Hopper owned the family house until his death, having inherited it from his unmarried sister, who lived there until she died, in 1965.