Painter of the loneliness of big-city people .

Edward HOPPER ( 1882-1967 ) is considered the first important American painter in the twentieth-century art . After decades of patient work , Hopper enjoyed a success and popularity that since the 1950s has continually grown .

In canvas after canvas he painted the loneliness of big-city people . Many of Hopper's pictures represent views of streets and roads , rooftops , and abandoned houses , depicted in a brilliant light that strangely belies the melancholy mood of the scenes .

Hopper's paintings are marked by striking juxtapositions of color , and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings . His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in the natural and man-made environment sometimes lends his pictures a mood of eery disquiet . On the other hand , Hopper's renderings of rocky lanscapes in warm brown hues , or his depictions of the seacoast , exude an unusual tranquillity that reveals another , more optimistic side of his character .