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Edward Hopper , (Jul 22, 1882–May 15, 1967)

Manhattan Bridge Loop

1928
35 in. x 60 in. (88.9 cm x 152.4 cm)

Medium and Support: Oil on canvas

Credit Line: Gift of Stephen C. Clark, Esq.

Accession Number: 1932.17

Current Location: On view : 209

Commentary

In his powerful and evocative painting, Manhattan Bridge Loop, Edward Hopper has frozen this transportation nexus of bridge, streets, railways, and crowded tenements in lower Manhattan in an eerie stillness and bathed it with cold crystalline light. A solitary figure, trudging along under the shadow of the blank embankment, suggests the human alienation possible within the urban life.

In 1940, when the Addison organized an exhibition called The Architecture of a Painting: Edward Hopper’s Manhattan Bridge Loop, the museum’s director elicited a rare and illuminating statement from Hopper about his artistic intentions. Hopper wrote, “My aim in painting is always, using nature as the medium, to try to project the subject as it appears when I like it most; when the facts are given unity by my interest and prejudices.” Relying on memory of the scene and armed with “a few small black and white sketches made from the fact” [two of which are exhibited here], Hopper composed the painting. “The very long horizontal shape of this picture . . . is an effort to give the sensation of great lateral extent. Carrying the main horizontal lines of the design with little interruption to the edges of the picture is to enforce this idea and to make one conscious of the spaces and elements beyond the limits of the scene itself.”

Comparisons between the two preparatory drawings and the final give vivid evidence of the careful ways in which Hopper reordered the elements of the scene to realize his artistic goal.

Exhibition List

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 00/00/00 - 5/10/1965
Design in Painting and Sculpture Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/5/1938 - 2/13/1938
Trois Siecles d'Art aux Etats-Unis The Museum of Modern Art , 6/1/1938 - 7/15/1938
The Architecture of a Painting: Hopper's Manhattan Bridge Loop Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/13/1940 - 4/4/1940
Twelve Contemporary Americans The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts , 10/4/1945 - 11/15/1945
Six Americans [An American Show: the Cincinnati Art Museum presents a selection The Cincinnati Art Museum , 10/1/1948 - 11/5/1948
Plan of a Painting Department of Architecture, MIT , 5/13/1949 - 8/2/1949
Masterpiece of the Month Connecticut College , 12/1/1949 - 12/31/1949
Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibition Whitney Museum of American Art , 2/10/1950 - 7/2/1950
Canadian National Exhibition The Art Gallery of Toronto , 8/25/1950 - 9/9/1950
Amerikanische Malerei: Werden und Gegenwart American Federation of Arts , 9/20/1951 - 10/5/1951
Venice Biennale [XXVI Biennale di Venezia, 1952] American Federation of Arts , 6/15/1952 - 10/19/1952
Twelve Modern American Painters and Sculptors The Museum of Modern Art , 4/24/1953 - 4/30/1954
Five Painters of America: Louis Bouche, Edward Hopper, Ben Shahn, Charles Sheel Worcester Art Museum , 2/17/1955 - 4/3/1955
Modern French and American Painting, 1920-1940 Wildenstein and Co., Inc. , 5/4/1955 - 5/28/1955
Works by Hopper and Corbino Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design , 3/7/1956 - 3/28/1956
Vassar College Exhibition Vassar College , 5/1/1957 - 5/27/1957
The Big City by Junior The Junior Art Gallery , 9/16/1957 - 11/15/1957
A Rationale for Modern Art American Federation of Arts , 10/1/1959 - 10/30/1960
Images of History Denver Art Museum , 3/12/1961 - 5/21/1961
Plan of a Painting Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/8/1963 - 3/19/1963
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/26/1963 - 12/23/1963
Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibition Whitney Museum of American Art , 9/29/1964 - 5/20/1965
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/15/1966 - 10/3/1966
IX Bienal de São Paulo [Environment U.S.A., 1957-1967] ]] Smithsonian Institution , 9/23/1967 - 3/24/1968
Terms of Criticism Addison Gallery of American Art , 7/18/1969 - 10/19/1969
The Works Addison Gallery of American Art , 11/7/1969 - 2/22/1970
Edward Hopper, 1882-1967: Oils, Watercolors, Etchings Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts , 9/24/1971 - 11/28/1971
Edward Hopper Newport Harbor Art Museum , 1/12/1972 - 4/30/1972
The Finished Study and its Object Jewett Arts Center/Wellesley College Museum , 9/10/1972 - 10/10/1972
Homer-Hassam-Hopper Worcester Art Museum , 2/14/1973 - 4/1/1973
Four MacDowell Medalists: Hopper, O'Keeffe, Calder and Nevelson Currier Museum of Art , 6/30/1973 - 9/15/1973
The Split-Up: The Beginning of a New Art in America Addison Gallery of American Art , 3/13/1981 - 4/12/1981
Masterworks from the Collection: 50th Anniversary Exhibition Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/9/1981 - 6/14/1981
Masterworks of American Art from the Addison Gallery Collection Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc. , 10/6/1981 - 10/31/1981
Landscapes from the Permanent Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/1/1983 - 5/1/1983
The American City Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/18/1991 - 3/10/1991
The 1920s: Age of the Metropolis Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal , 6/20/1991 - 11/10/1991
Edward Hopper Retrospective Louisiana Museum of Modern Art , 1/25/1992 - 5/3/1992
Edward Hopper und die Fotografie: Die Wahrheit des Sichtbaren Museum Folkwang , 6/28/1992 - 9/27/1992
Edward Hopper and the American Imagination Whitney Museum of American Art , 6/21/1995 - 10/15/1995
Addison Gallery of American Art: 65 Years Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/13/1996 - 7/31/1996
Urban Visions Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/25/1998 - 7/31/1998
Parallel Perspectives: Early Twentieth Century American Art Addison Gallery of American Art , 11/16/1999 - 5/1/2000
How You Look At It : Photographs Of The 20th Century / Sprengel Museum , 5/14/2000 - 8/6/2000
Foundations: Building the Addison Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/12/2001 - 4/1/2001
Explorations Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/7/2001 - 7/31/2001
Explorations: Paintings, Drawings, and Prints in the Addison Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/4/2001 - 1/13/2002
Place and Perceptions Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/16/2002 - 7/31/2002
Conversations: A Collection in Dialogue Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/7/2003 - 7/31/2003
Art, Artists, and the Addison: Building a Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 3/30/2004 - 7/31/2004
Eye on the Collection: Copley to Hopper Addison Gallery of American Art , 12/21/2004 - 6/12/2005
Eye on the Collection: West to Hopper Addison Gallery of American Art , 6/17/2005 - 10/16/2005
Toward Abstraction Addison Gallery of American Art , 12/23/2005 - 3/26/2006
Clark Brothers Collect: Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute , 6/3/2006 - 1/30/2008
Coming of Age: American Art, 1850s to 1950s American Federation of Arts , 9/9/2006 - 9/7/2009
Mix and Match: A Conversation between Paintings and Works on Paper Addison Gallery of American Art , 1/23/2007 - 4/8/2007
Edward Hopper Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , 5/6/2007 - 5/11/2008
Inside, Outside, Upstairs, Downstairs: The Addison Anew Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/7/2010 - 3/27/2011
80 @ 80 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/15/2011 - 12/31/2011
Hopper Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza , 6/12/2012 - 2/3/2013
Eye on the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 4/27/2013 - 7/31/2013
Hopper Drawing Whitney Museum of American Art , 5/23/2013 - 6/22/2014
Exterior Spaces, Interior Places Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/2/2014 - 1/4/2015
Searching for the Real Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/30/2015 - 7/31/2015
Selections from the Permanent Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/12/2015 - 3/13/2016
Piero della Francesca. Exploring a Legend Fondazione Cassa dei Risparmi di Forlì , 2/12/2016 - 6/26/2016
Eye on the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/1/2016 - 3/19/2017
Eye on the Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 9/1/2017 - 7/31/2018
America's Cool Modernism: O'Keeffe to Hopper Ashmolean , 3/23/2018 - 7/22/2018
In and Out of Place Addison Gallery of American Art , 2/16/2019 - 7/31/2019
Man Up! Visualizing Masculinity in 19th-Century America Addison Gallery of American Art , 12/21/2019 - 4/5/2020
Currents/Crosscurrents: American Art, 1850–1950 Addison Gallery of American Art , 10/16/2020 - 3/7/2021
Learning to Look: The Addison at 90 Addison Gallery of American Art , 5/8/2021 - 2/6/2022
Edward Hopper's New York Whitney Museum of American Art , 10/19/2022 - 3/5/2023
Finding American Form: 20th Century Selections from the Permanent Collection Addison Gallery of American Art , 3/2/2024 - 7/31/2024

Related Children(s) Click a record to view

Image of Study for "Manhattan Bridge Loop"

Study for "Manhattan Bridge Loop"
1940.71

Image of Study for "Manhattan Bridge Loop" No. 2

Study for "Manhattan Bridge Loop" No. 2
1940.72

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