Edward Hopper - Influence of American oil painter Jeff Starr. If you didn't know better, at first glance you might think that Hopper was European. But then you notice images in his paintings that are distinctly American. I guess that blend is one of the things that makes Edward Hopper's work resonate so strongly with me. There's no doubt that my work is deeply influenced by European artists, but I would like to think that "American-ness" adds a unique perspective to my paintings.

Hopper was born in upper Nyack, New York, a yacht-building center north of New York City, the only son of comfortably well-off middle class family. His parents, mostly of Dutch ancestry, were Garret Henry Hopper, a dry-goods merchant, and his wife Elizabeth Griffiths Smith. Though not as successful as his forebears, Garrett provided well for his two children with considerable help from his wife's inheritance, and he retired at age forty-nine. Edward and his only sibling Marion attended both private and public schools, and were raised in a strict Baptist home. Owing in part to his father's mild nature, the household was dominated by women - his mother, grandmother, sister, and maid.

Hopper was a good student in grade school and showed talent in drawing at age five. He readily absorbed his father's intellectual tendencies and love of French and Russian culture and demonstrated his mother's artistic lineage. Hopper's parents encouraged his art and kept him readily supplied with materials, instructional magazines, and illustrated books. By his teens, he was working in pen-and-ink, charcoal, watercolor, and oil-drawing from nature as well as making political cartoons. In 1895, he created his first signed oil painting, Rowboat in Rocky Cove, which demonstrated his early interest in nautical subjects.

At forty-one, Hopper finally received the recognition he deserved, but he continued to harbor bitterness about his career, later turning down appearances and awards. His financial stability now secured, Hopper would live a simple, stable life and continue creating art in his distinctive style for four more decades.