Edward and Jo Hopper: 'Croix de Guerre - a Medal for Distinguished Combat'

Edward and Jo Hopper - 1938 (click photo for larger image)Edward Hopper’s (1882-1967) artist wife, Jo, was his only model and was crucial to his success. On their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary she told him they deserved a 'croix de guerre - a medal for distinguished combat', and Hopper responded by making them a coat of arms out of a rolling pin and a ladle. When she married Edward Hopper, Josephine Nivison was 41, and had been painting successfully for 16 years. Her work had been shown alongside that of Modigliani and Picasso, Maurice Prendergast and Man Ray. She regularly sold drawings to the New York Tribune , the Evening Post and the Chicago Herald Examiner. Hopper’s rare figures included a bedraggled nude staring out of a window, a woman in black reading on a train, an usherette in a cinema, a redheaded 'nighthawk', a blonde on a bed, a buxom young secretary in an office--and others. Jo Hopper was all of these women...and none of them.

Edward Hopper - Nighthawks - 1942 - Oil on canvas, 30 x 60 in; The Art Institute of Chicago (click photo for larger image)Starting shortly after their marriage in 1924, Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine (Jo), kept a journal in which he would, using a pencil, make a sketch-drawing of each of his paintings, along with a precise description of certain technical details. Jo Hopper would then add additional information in which the themes of the painting are, to some degree, illuminated. A review of the page on which ‘’Nighthawks’’ is entered shows (in Edward Hopper’s handwriting) that the intended name of the work was actually ‘’Night Hawks’’, and that the painting was completed on January 21, 1942. Jo’s handwritten notes about the painting give considerably more detail, including the interesting possibility that the painting's evocative title may have had its origins as a reference to the beak-shaped nose of the man at the bar. 

Gala and Dali

Helena (“Gala”) Diankonova and Salvador Dali (click photo for larger image)(Left) Salvador Dalí. Portrait of Gala. 1935. Oil on wood, 12 3/4 x 10 1/2" (32.4 x 26.7 cm). Gift of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. © 2005 Salvador Dalí, Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; (Right) Salvador Dalí. Salvador Dalí. Portrait of Gala with Rhinocerotic Symptoms - 1954. Oil on canvas, 39 x 31.5 cm (approx. 15.4 x 12.4 in) Private collection (click photo for larger image)Russian-born Helena Diankonova met surrealist master Salvador Dali (1904-1989) in 1929. Ten years his senior, “Gala” was then married to Paul Éluard--a French poet and one of the founders of the Surrealist movement. But an affair sparked and the two eventually wed in 1943. Gala was far more than a muse for her husband. She was also the quirky artist’s business manager--and was instrumental in his financial success. Gala was the subject of several of Dali’s paintings. Dali and Gala would often shock people by their behaviors—such as showing up at parties wearing clear plastic—wholly transparent—clothing. Dali’s colleagues didn’t like Gala (nor did his family). His fellow artists found her to be cold—and believed she was turning Dali into a caricature—and undermining the integrity of the Surrealist movement. But Dali always insisted that he would have nothing had it not been for Gala.

Frida and Diego

Diego Rivera - The Arsenal- Frida Kahlo Distributes Arms (El arsenal-Frida Kahlo repartiendo armas), detail, from the cycle "Political Vision of the Mexican People", 1928, fresco - approx. 79 7/8" x 13' 6" (2.03 x 3.98 m - Ministry of Education, Mexico City (click photo for larger image)Self-Portrait as a Tehuana (Diego on My Mind) - 1943 - Oil on Masonite - 29 7/8 x 24 in. - Gelman Collection, Mexico City (click photo for larger image)Although this is the only image Diego Rivera (1886-1957) ever painted of Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) — we know that she was his muse from the beginning--to the end--of their long and turbulent relationship. They were married twice. He had a string of affairs—including one with her sister. Frida also had multiple affairs, with both men and women. Nevertheless, we also know...without question...that Diego was Frida Kahlo’s muse. Some of her paintings include his image--and most of them deal with issues involving their relationship.

“Modi” and Jeanne—A Tragic Tale

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) - Jeanne Hebuterne - 1917-1918 - Oil on canvas - 39 1/4 x 25 1/2 in. (99.7 x 64.8 cm) - Private collection (click photo for larger image)Jeanne Hebuterne - Portrait of Amedeo Modigliani - 1918 Private collection Painting - oil on canvas Height: 47 cm (18.5 in.), Width: 33 cm (12.99 in.)One of the most tragic stories of art history is that of Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) and his muse and, later, wife, Jean Hebuterne. In the spring of 1917, the Russian sculptor Chana Orloff introduced Modigliani to the beautiful 19-year-old art student. Jeanne. Hébuterne was renounced by her devout Roman Catholic family for her liaison with the painter, and, later, for her marriage to him. Modigliani and Hébuterne eventually moved to Nice, and they had a daughter whom they named Jeanne (1918–1984). When Modigliani died on January 24, 1920, Hébuterne was pregnant with their second child. She threw herself out of a fifth-story window the following day--killing herself and their unborn child. Merrill Secrest’s book, written with unprecedented access to letters, diaries, and photographs never before seen, is an extraordinary revelation of a life lived in art. It’s called, “Modigliani: A Life”. Modigliani was also—clearly—Jeanne Hebuterne’s muse, as seen in this portrait of him.

Alma

“Alma Mahler, 1912," by Oskar Kokoschka, oil on canvas, 24 3/8 by 22 inches, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (click photo for larger image)Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) fell in love with the widow of composer Gustav Mahler. Alma was eleven years older than Kokoschka. They had a three-year relationship. Before she married Mahler, she had been involved with Gustav Klimt. After her relationship with Kokoschka, she married Walter Gropius, the architect (a founder of Bauhaus school and pioneer of modern architecture), and then Franz Werfel, the writer (‘Song of Bernadette’). In this portrait, Kokoschka was obviously influenced by Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa."