Did you know this about Edward Hopper?

Edward Hopper (1882-1967) is generally considered the foremost realist painter of 20th-century America.

Hopper is known for his oil paintings, but he also made etchings…

…and watercolors.

Hopper was not initially successful as an artist, so he made ends meet with freelance illustration work…

… including movie poster designs.

Frank Rehn gave Hopper his first solo show in 1924. Hopper was 42.

Automat was first displayed on Valentine’s Day 1927, at the Rehn Galleries in New York. It hung from February, through March, and sold in April for $1,200. Adjusting for inflation, $1,200 would be about $17,400 in 2018. It was Hopper’s second solo show.

The Seattle Art Museum expected to receive Chop Suey after the death of the collector and patron Barney Ebsworth this year, but instead the family is having the painting is auctioned at Christie’s. The painting was recently valued at $70 million.

By the mid 1930’s, when Hopper was in his 50’s, 10 years after his first solo show, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art were all competing to purchase his work.

Hopper was not prolific, he painted only 366 canvases in his lifetime. If he started painting when he was in his early 20’s, and painted until the year he died, this would be an average of one painting every 2 months. During the 1950s, when he was in his 70s, he produced approximately five paintings a year.