First Row Orchestra

This piece by Edward Hopper depicts an image of a vibrant yet somber theatre scene.

With a sharp and lively display of colours, First Row Orchestra relays a certain element of anxiety and isolation, which is revealed through the sparseness of the impatient audience in the first few rows.

Painted with oil in 1951, this realist painting shows the real life depiction of melancholy that Hopper is most famously known for.

Hopper is also celebrated for his highly refined calculations, as one can see that his rendering of everyday life could be likened to a photograph, but with the aesthetic appeal of the realism that a cultured society respects and loves.

Edward Hopper was born in Upper Nyack, New York in 1882 to a Dutch, dry-goods merchant family. In high school, Hopper had dreamt of being a naval architect, but his passion for visual arts took over as he enrolled in the New York School of Art in 1900.

He was and is one of America’s most respected and leading realist painters and printmakers. Hopper was known mostly for his oil paintings, but was also a skilled watercolourist and printmaker (etching).

Whether bringing to light the stillness of the rural landscape or illustrating the detailed nuances of the animated cityscape, Edward Hopper would reflect a realist interpretation of modern day Americana.