Edward and Jo in Gloucester

August 4, 2023 7:02 AM

A new exhibition in the Cape Ann museum in Gloucester explores the love that the two had for the area. It also looks at their relationship, with Jo directing the "Hopper brand." (WaPo gift link)

Jo Nivison's watercolors were exhibited recently at the Edward Hopper House and Study Museum in Nyack, NY, showcasing Jo's great talent with watercolors.

Speaking of that minister with all of Jo's watercolors, though: How exactly did he get all that stuff? (archive link to NY Times story)

posted by PussKillian (7 comments total)

MY SO and I saw the "Hopper's New York" show at The Whitney in NYC (which was excellent) earlier this year. At the time, we cracked wise about the fact that Hopper lacked the ability to paint faces because every picture with person either had their face turned away or obscured. The portrait of Jo in this exhibition ad featured in the WaPo article has me convinced that our joke may be based in the truth.
posted by KingEdRa at 8:18 AM on August 4, 2023

Oh my - this is wonderful. I love the breeze puffing up the awnings in "The Mansard Roof."

I took a quick look at the Cape Ann Museum website, and it looks like the exhibit page features a podcast about the exhibit.

I'm very pleased to get to read this this morning - thanks so much for posting it, PussKillian!
posted by kristi at 10:00 AM on August 4, 2023 [2 favorites]

The story with the minister is pretty interesting, though the link doesn't lead to the archive, this does. Going by the quotes from everyone but the Whitney, it sounds pretty obvious that he did in fact help himself to a bunch of stuff, either while Jacqueline was incapacitated or after her death. But I'm guessing there was a non-disparagement clause in the deal for the Whitney to get the archives from the minister's family, thus their continued pretense that his behavior was all aboveboard.
posted by tavella at 11:04 AM on August 4, 2023

I should have added this link as well: the biggest of the big-name scholars working with Hopper, and the woman who put together his catalogue raisonne, very directly calls Sandborn a thief.

Sanborn stole City Roofs from Jo Hopper when he visited her in New York City in the lonely months she lived alone after Edward’s death. She was confined to their apartment due to having broken her hip and her leg. Visually impaired from cataracts complicated by glaucoma, she hobbled around on a walker. Jo recorded City Roofs in the record books she kept as “here in studio”.
posted by PussKillian at 11:56 AM on August 4, 2023

"A connoisseur of solitude." Hopper in a nutshell...
posted by jim in austin at 1:12 PM on August 4, 2023

Thanks for posting this! Fascinating about Jo. The Cape Ann Museum is one of my favorite smaller museums. It punches way above its weight in quality (helped a lot by the talented Gloucester art colonies over the years). Well worth a visit.
posted by Miko at 5:17 PM on August 4, 2023 [3 favorites]

I got to visit when I couriered two Marsden Hartley paintings that he painted locally. It’s definitely a great place and I was interested in the Folly Cove designers, who I realized illustrated some favorite childhood books of mine.
posted by PussKillian at 7:51 PM on August 4, 2023