Hopper Stamps: A Twofer!
I am delighted to finally be offering the 2011 Edward Hopper (1882–1967) Forever Stamp. This design, based on Hopper's ca. 1930 painting The Long Leg, captures serenity like no other stamp. The setting is summer in Provincetown, Massachusetts on Cape Cod. This stamp is part of the American Treasures series, which began in 2001 to honor “fine works by skilled hands, from Amish quilts to idyllic paintings by American masters.” The series includes work by other important painters as well as blankets by Southwestern Native Americans, Gees Bend Quilts, and a stained glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The original painting is in the collection of the Huntington Gardens and Museum in Huntington, California.
This 32 cent stamp based on Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks was included in the 1998 sheet Four Centuries of American Art. This fantastic sheet captures work from the 1600s to the mid-twentieth century, all made in America. The painting was created in 1942 and is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The painting is inspired by a cafe at an intersection on Greenwich Avenue in New York City Hopper is known for capturing loneliness, quiet and isolation in his work and said about this work: “unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.”
