Noon Hour

Noon Hour is Isabel Bishop's study of two fashionably dressed women, their arms linked, casually conversing as if during a lunchtime visit. Bishop carefully modeled each woman's curvaceous figure and used a range of strokes to further delineate such details as the bow at each woman's neckline, a clutch purse, the gathered flounces of their skirts, and their stylish shoes. She lavished particular attention on the attractive face of the woman on the left as she listens attentively to her companion, whose profile is just visible beneath the brim of her hat. Bishop's keenly observed rendering of her hands as they play idly with a ring conveys the relaxed intimacy between the two women. Noon Hour is at once a figure study, a glimpse of daily urban life, and an engaging depiction of friendship.

Pedestrians, especially women, on New York City's sidewalks frequently inspired Bishop's art. Her prints share stylistic and subject affinities with the graphic work of Kenneth Hayes Miller, her teacher at the Art Students League in New York City beginning in 1922 (TF 1996.85) and Reginald Marsh, a fellow student and friend. All three artists were associated with the so-called Fourteenth Street school, whose members were passionate observers of the vibrant life found just beyond the walls of their studios in the Union Square neighborhood of lower Manhattan. Bishop made her first etching in 1925. In her sixty-year career she executed over one hundred prints, many of which feature compositions of single figures, pairs, or small groups informally and casually interacting. With its rapid, sketch-like technique, Noon Hour has the spontaneity of a quick study made on the spot from covert observation. However, close examination reveals that the sensitive renderings of materials and forms was achieved by deftly combining heavy and delicate lines, stippling, and the faint shadows of ink only lightly rubbed from the plate's surface. This impression appears to be one of a group of forty made by Bishop in 1935; an edition of 250 was published in 1946.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999. [exh. cat.]

Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, May 9–July 9, 2000.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

(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.Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.

 

Reese, Albert. American Prize Prints of the Twentieth Century. New York: American Artists Group, Inc., 1949. Text and ill. p. 20.

Johnson, Una E. and Jo Miller. Isabel Bishop: Prints and Drawings. New York: Shorewood Publishers, 1964. No. 13.

Isabel Bishop: [First Retrospective Exhibition]. (exh. cat., University of Arizona Museum of Art). Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Museum of Art, 1974. No. 103.

Jacobowitz, Ellen S. and George H. Marcus. American Graphics, 1860–1940: Selected from the Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. (exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art). Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1982. No. 100, p. 104.

Isabel Bishop: The Affectionate Eye. (exh. cat., Labond Art Gallery). Los Angeles, California: Loyola Marymount University, 1985. No. 13, p. 29.

Teller, Susan. Isabel Bishop, Etchings and Aquatints: A Catalogue Raisonné. 2nd ed. San Francisco, California: Alan Wofsy, 1985. No. 18, p. 16.