EDWARD HOPPER The Eagle or The Eagle and Dead Red Deer (after Sir Edwin Landseer).
Pen and ink on wove paper, circa 1900. 135x180 mm; 5 1/4x7 inches. Initialed and inscribed "Sir Edwin Landseer" in ink, lower recto.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, New York; Josephine N. Hopper, the artist's widow, New York; Reverend and Mrs. Arthayer R. Sanborn, Nyack; Alexander Gallery, New York; Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, with the label; private collection, Pennsylvania.
Exhibited: "Edward Hopper Drawings: The Poetry of Solitude," Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, September 9-October 15, 1995; "The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper," Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, November 4-25, 1995, number 4.
Published: The Early Drawings of Edward Hopper, New York, 1995, catalogue number 4 (illustrated).
As a young artist, Hopper (1882-1967) frequently made drawings based on illustrations he found in books, magazines, newspapers and elsewhere, practicing and perfecting his technique through the study of works by Renaissance and Victorian masters alike. He copied the current drawing from an etching made by the Victorian painter and sculptor Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873), who was especially renowned during the 19th century for his depictions of animals. Landseer's etching, The Eagle (or The Eagle and Dead Red Deer), 1825, was issued in the series Etchings by Edwin Landseer published by E. Gambart & Co., London in 1848.
