Hopper and his wife Jo traveled to Mexico in the summer of 1943, seeking a change of scene and new subjects for Hopper's art. After stopping in Mexico City, they traveled 500 miles north to Saltillo, a smaller city whose cool, dry climate and views of nearby mountains made it a popular destination for vacationers. The Hoppers stayed at a hotel called the Guarhado House on Victoria Street, and Hopper painted several watercolors from the hotel roof. From this height, he could see the mountains over the buildings of the city, but his depictions of the scene still suggest the urban development that was blocking his enjoyment of the natural setting. In another work, he showed the colorful towers of Saltillo's eighteenth-century cathedral, a reminder of the city's roots as a Spanish settlement; here, however, he limits his scope to a partial view of some domestic architecture. The houses' simple, blocklike forms, trimmed with lattices and decorative carving, are a dazzling white against the sky and the distant hills. Hopper had initially complained that Saltillo was noisy and congested, but from his rooftop he could project onto this new setting the same stillness and solitude that pervaded his scenes of New York and New England.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Saltillo Mansion
Artist:Edward Hopper (American, Nyack, New York 1882–1967 New York)
Date:1943
Medium:Watercolor over graphite on paper
Dimensions:21 1/4 × 27 1/8 in. (54 × 68.9 cm)
Classification:Drawings
Credit Line:George A. Hearn Fund, 1945
Object Number:45.157.2
Inscription: Signed (lower left, in watercolor): EDWARD HOPPER
[Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery, New York, until 1945; sold to MMA]
New York. Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery. "Water Colors by Edward Hopper," November 29–December 23, 1943, brochure no. 2.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibition," February 11–March 26, 1950, no. 127.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "Edward Hopper Retrospective Exhibition," April 13–May 14, 1950, no. 127.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "20th Century Painters: A Special Exhibition of Oils, Water Colors and Drawings Selected from the Collections of American Art in the Metropolitan Museum," June 16–October 29, 1950, unnum. brochure (p. 15).
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Edward Hopper," September 29–November 29, 1964, no. 130.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "200 Years of Watercolor Painting in America," December 8, 1966–January 29, 1967, no. 192.
Birmingham, Ala. Birmingham Museum of Art. "American Watercolors, 1850–1972," January 16–February 13, 1972, unnumbered cat. (p. 43).
Mobile, Ala. Mobile Art Gallery. "American Watercolors, 1850–1972," February 22–March 31, 1972, unnumbered cat.
New York. Whitney Museum of American Art. "Juliana Force's Selections for The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 1–May 11, 1980, no catalogue.
Madrid. Fundación Juan March. "Edward Hopper," October 13, 1989–January 4, 1990, no. 37 (as "Mansion en Saltillo").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Edward Hopper," April 18–August 17, 1996, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Edward Hopper," April 18–August 17, 1997, no catalogue.
Washington, D. C. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. "Edward Hopper: The Watercolors," October 22, 1999–January 3, 2000, unnumbered cat. (fig. 142).
Montgomery, Ala. Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. "Edward Hopper: The Watercolors," January 30–March 26, 2000, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Drawings (1900–1950): Selections from the Permanent Collection," October 25, 2005–April 23, 2006, no catalogue.
Richmond. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. "Edward Hopper and the American Hotel," October 26, 2019–February 23, 2020, unnumbered cat. (fig. 8.4).
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. "Edward Hopper and the American Hotel," July 17–October 25, 2020, unnumbered cat.
"Museums Purchase American Paintings." New York Times (February 9, 1945), p. 20.
Lloyd Goodrich. Edward Hopper. New York, [1971], ill. p. 264.
Edward F. Weeks. American Watercolors, 1850–1972. Exh. cat., Birmingham Museum of Art. Birmingham, Ala., 1972, p. 70, ill. p. 43.
Gail Levin. Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist. Exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art. New York, 1980, p. 303.
Henry Adams inAmerican Drawings and Watercolors in the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute. Pittsburgh, 1985, p. 170.
Kate Farrell. Art and Nature: An Illustrated Anthology of Nature Poetry. New York, 1992, ill. p. 95 (color).
Gail Levin. Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonné. Vol. 2, Watercolors. New York, 1995, p. 311, no. W-342, ill. (color) [reprinted as "The Complete Watercolors of Edward Hopper," 2001].
Deborah Lyons. "Record Books I, II, III, V." Edward Hopper: A Journal of His Work. New York, 1997, p. 92, reproduces the artist's record book entry for this work, noting that it was painted with Winsor Newton tube watercolors on Whatman rough paper from the roof of Casa Guajardo in August 1943 and was purchased by MMA on April 4, 1946.
Virginia M. Mecklenburg with Margaret Lynne Ausfeld. Edward Hopper: The Watercolors. Exh. cat., National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, D.C., 1999, pp. 145, 162, fig. 142 (color).
Gail Levin. The Complete Watercolors of Edward Hopper. New York, 2001, p. 311, no. W-342, ill. (color) [reprints Ref. Levin 1995].
Gail Levin. Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography. 2nd rev. ed. [1st ed., 1995]. New York, 2007, p. 365.
Carol Lowrey and Lisa N. Peters. Works on Paper 2008. Exh. cat., Spanierman Gallery, LLC. New York, 2008, p. 126.
Sarah G. Powers in Leo G. Mazow with Sarah G. Powers. Edward Hopper and the American Hotel. Exh. cat., Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Richmond, 2019, pp. 128–29, 190, fig. 8.4 (color).
Edward Hopper (American, Nyack, New York 1882–1967 New York)
1927
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