Rooms by the sea – research phase

My last post gave some research background in to Edward Hopper, who I’ll be launching in to full on reproduction mode with this semester in Tonal Realism painting.

This post will detail the steps I took to assimilate my research in to a physical reproduction of my Hopper painting of choice “Rooms by the sea”. After my initial research on the artist, I went in search of information specific to this painting.

—The original painting— Rooms by the Sea, Edward Hopper, 1951, Oil on canvas 74.3 x 101.6 cm (29 1/4 x 40 in.), Bequest of Stephen Carlton Clark, B.A. 1903, Yale University Art Gallery

My first point of call was to see if I could find any writings by Hopper’s wife. I was in luck!

Now the problem lay in deciphering Hopper’s wife’s ramblings. This was a cataloging of sorts, not a definitive materials or method list by any means.

What we can learn from this notebook entry is:

  • Windsor and Newton double primed canvas (which we can assume was linen, based on Hopper’s oral history interview).
  • Flake White, Linseed oil and turpentine. (I’ll use a flake white replacement, because it is a rare pigment). I’ll use an odourless solvent in place of turpentine because ain’t nobody want a turps-based headache!
  • Sea blue? Ok then! Something something sunlight yellow. My research tells me that Hopper was a fan of Naples yellow, so we’ll run with that.
  • dramatic effect observed in rooms. Ok then! Shadow steely blue grey. Wall and floor differentiated.
  • Room beyond: Green carpet. Red sofa with mahogany stain woodwork. Gold picture frame.

As you can see, this is by no means a technical description. It’s up to me, using the information gathered prior, as well as these notes, and observation, to piece the puzzle together.

My initial visual observations conclude that the majority of the painting utilises layers and layers of scumbling; however the sea portion appears to be overpainted wet in wet.

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