Evening Wind

The etching Evening Wind is Edward Hopper's intimate glimpse of an ordinary event: a nude woman climbing into bed turns, sensing a breeze, towards an open window flanked by billowing white curtains. Hopper used the uninked areas of the off-white paper to suggest the blank window, curtains, bed sheets, and pillows, and highlights on the woman's skin. Careful inking of the densely cross-hatched passages on the etching plate resulted in the image's dark areas: the intensely black, shadow-filled corner at the left, where a pitcher and bowl rest on a bedside chest; the crevices of rumpled sheets; the piled bedding at the foot of the bed; and the window frame with the edge of exterior masonry visible beyond. Laboring to perfect this etching, Hopper evolved the image through eight states before achieving what he envisioned. In 1921, shortly after its completion, the print was shown at the Second International Printmakers Exhibition hosted by the Los Angeles Museum of History, Science, and Art (now the Los Angeles County Museum of Art), and in the winter exhibition at the National Academy of Design, in New York.

By presenting the solitary figure with her face hidden by her long dark hair as she looks toward the outdoor light, Hopper imbued this interior scene with a universal and timeless quality that transcends the specificity of daily life. The woman's pose and the bedroom setting recall John Sloan's etching Turning Out the Light (TF 1995.21), which inspired this print. Evening Wind displays a haunting beauty that is Hopper's own, however. It ranks as one of his graphic masterpieces and, along with his etching East Side Interior (TF 1994.22), as a classic example of his enigmatic treatment of the figure in an interior.

Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 1996.

L'Amérique et les modernes, 1900–1950 (American Moderns, 1900–1950), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 25–October 31, 2000. [exh. cat.]

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

Zigrosser, Carl. "The Etchings of Edward Hopper." In Prints: Thirteen Illustrated Essays on the Art of the Print Selected for the Print Council of America, edited by Carl Zigrosser. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962. No. 9, pp. 155–73.

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Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist. (exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art). New York, New York, and London, England: W. W. Norton & Company in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1980. Text p. 35; fig. 38.

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Evening Wind (Night Wind), Edward Hopper. Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 1996. Ill. (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. American Moderns, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text pp. 13, 61 (checklist); ill. p. 7 (black & white), fig. 15, p. 13 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Cartwright, Derrick R. and Paul J. Karlstrom. L'Amérique et les modernes, 1900–1950. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2000. Text pp. 13, 61 (checklist); ill. p. 7 (black & white), fig. 15, p. 13 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Brettell, Richard R. and Eric Darragon. Edward Hopper. Les années parisiennes 1906–1910. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 2004. Text p. 13; ill. p. 14. [specific reference to Terra print]