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notes
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Built by Sailor's Snug
Harbor, now owned by NYU. Home of Edward and Jo
Hopper.
Perhaps no building in New York is more
closely associated with a single artist that this 1830s row house. From
1913 till his death in May 1967, the Hoppers lived in a studio on the top
floor. Chosen for its low rent and the artist’s belief that his hero,
the Philadelphia artist, Thomas Eakins had painted here, Hopper and his
wife leased rooms having neither heat nor private bath. They decorated
their rooms simply, with pieces of early American furniture.
Hopper divided his time between New York
and Provincetown. As the years passed and his reputation grew, he moved to
a larger, but still bathroom-less, space in the building. He exhibited his
work at Edith Halpert’s Downtwown Gallery on 13th Street, as well as at
the Whitney Museum of American Art and at the Museum of Modern Art. In his
later years, when Hopper’s fame was at its height, NYU became the
building’s landlord, raising the artist’s rent and threatening
eviction. Many Village residents came to the couple’s defense, including
the Ashcan school painter, John Sloan.
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