An Infrared Examination of Edward Hopper’s High Noon

Abstract

An unprovenanced oil study, purportedly by the early American realist Edward Hopper (188* -1967), was purchased in 2007 on eBay by a pair of brothers from Ontario. It is a smaller, poorly-executed near-copy of Hopper’s High Noon at the Dayton Art Institute. Given that detailed diary entries by Hopper’s wife, Josephine, note only that four charcoal sketches preceded the final version of High Noon, and fail to mention an oil study, Gail Levin, the author of Hopper’s catalogue raisonné, has conservatively concluded that it can at best be assigned to a dedicated follower. Can Infrared Reflectography of the two paintings shed light on the question of authenticity? Many pigments used by Hopper become transparent in the Near Infrared spectrum, a fact verified by a test-panel. By using a DSLR camera, converted to detect IR, charcoal sketches on the primed canvas of the original were revealed. While IR Reflectography reveals earlier stages in the composition of the authentic High Noon, stages suggested by the charcoal sketches, IR does not provide positive proof for the authenticity of the oil sketch. The issue of authenticity became further complicated when the media, led by the Globe and Mail, took up the case of the owners and overstated the IR results. At present the IR investigation suggests only that the oil study was painted by a follower working from either Josephine’s diary or, more intriguingly, from Hopper’s own sketches, which are held in a private collection.