Jimmy Corsini c. 1901

This is Jimmy Corsini by Edward Hopper, drawn with charcoal on paper. I can almost feel the artist’s hand moving across the page, the charcoal sketching the subject into being. You can see how Hopper used darker marks to define the contours of Jimmy’s face, giving him depth and volume. I wonder what Hopper was thinking when he made this drawing? Was he interested in the sitter’s individual features, or was he exploring something more universal about the human condition? I love the way Hopper captures the way the hat droops to one side; it's weighted. The shadow on the face is heavy, and the overall feeling is kind of melancholic. You can feel it, right? Hopper was obviously influenced by the masters of realism. He was part of a much larger conversation about how we see and represent the world around us. In a way, artists are always riffing off each other, you know? They take what came before, and they make it their own. Each artwork is a statement, open to different interpretations and meanings.