Elizabeth Thompson Colleary has collected 58 previously unknown letters written by and to Edward Hopper. Over the course of a ten-year period, Alta Hilsdale and Hopper wrote to each other, sometimes on a daily basis. When both lived in Paris, even though they lived fairly close to one another, they would write often. They letters were discovered after Hopper’s death and were kept by the Reverend Arthayer Sanborn, a close Hopper friend. The members of the Sanborn family were among the very few people who have read these letters.
It is obvious after reading a few of the letters that the very reserved Hopper had developed a romantic attachment to Alta. In one poignant letter, she basically writes Hopper a “Dear John” note explaining that she would soon marry someone else.
For Hopper scholars, this find of letters helps to develop a fuller picture of this important twentieth century painter. Hopper was a very reclusive person who spoke or wrote very little of his personal life. Until now only two other romantic attachments were known about prior to Hopper’s marriage to Josephine Nivison.
Copies of the letters are on exhibit at Hopper House in Nyack. The collection of letters, “My Dear Mr. Hopper,” was published by the Whitney Museum of American Art and Yale University Press.