The Cat Boat

Edward Hopper's etching The Cat Boat shows three men sailing on the Hudson River near Nyack, the artist's hometown, located twenty-five miles north of New York City and noted for building river boats and racing yachts. Seen from the vantage point of a vessel trailing in its wake, the sailboat is deftly steered by a muscled skipper in its stern toward a hilly shore covered with dense vegetation. Two passengers sit on the boat's right edge as a counterbalance to the tilt of the hull as the taut sail catches the wind. The strong diagonals of the mast and boom between which the sail is stretched further animate the composition. Hopper's mastery of line is exemplified in the precisely drawn parallel lines and cross-hatching that shade the boat and sail and in the contrasting tangles of swirling black lines indicating the foliage in the background. After developing and refining this etching through eight states, Hopper exhibited it in two exhibitions in the winter of 1923–24: at New York's venerable National Academy of Design and in the eighth annual exhibition of the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, held at the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.

The Cat Boat reflects the artist's love of sailing. Hopper built his own catboat (a sailboat sporting a single sail with its mast set forward toward the bow) around the age of fifteen. His lifelong love of sailing and nautical subjects inspired several paintings, watercolors, and drawings in addition to this picturesque print.

Héroïque et le quotidien: les artistes américains, 1820–1920 (The Extraordinary and the Everyday: American Perspectives, 1820–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–November 30, 2001. [exh. cat.]

Le Temps des loisirs : peintures américaines (At Leisure: American Paintings), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, July 15–October 31, 2007.

America’s Cool Modernism: O’Keeffe to Hopper, Terra Foundation for American Art and the Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, UK (organizers.) Venue: Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, UK, March 23, 2018–July 22, 2018 [exh. cat.]

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. 4, pp. 155–73.

Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: The Complete Prints. (exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art). New York and London, England: W. W. Norton & Company in association with the Whitney Museum of American Art, 1979. Pl. 83, 84.

Sharp, Ellen et al. Master Prints of Five Centuries, The Alan and Marianne Schwartz Collection. (exh. cat., The Detroit Institute of Arts). Detroit, Michigan: Founders Society, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 1990. No. 46, p. 74.

Bourguignon, Katherine M., Lauren Kroiz, and Leo G. Mazow. America’s Cool Modernism: O’Keeffe to Hopper. Oxford, United Kingdom: Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology–University of Oxford, 2018. Ill. p. 139, cat. no. 41 (color).