Paintings and Personalities

Abstract

Four painters, Edward Hopper, Reginald Marsh, Raphael Soyer, and Ben Shahn, had much in common but their works and personalities were very different. All were born between 1882 and 1899 outside New York and spent most of their lives in that city. All had some formal art training but soon developed independent characteristic styles, representational rather than abstract. None belonged to any definite school. All were successful in terms of financial rewards, inclusion in exhibits, and prizes. And now, each has been the subject of a handsome volume that reproduces much of his work. Lloyd Goodrich, former director of the Whitney Museum, who knew them all, wrote the text of three of these books, while Shahn's widow, herself an artist, wrote about him. Hopper (1882-1967) often painted man-made structures—New England houses, city apartments, lighthouses, trains, boats, and bridges. In his few landscapes, the center of interest is often a road,