1927.257: Libby House, Portland, Maine

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1927.257

People

Edward Hopper, American (Nyack NY 1882 - 1967 New York NY)

Title

Libby House, Portland, Maine

Other Titles

Alternate Title: Libby's House / Victoria Mansion

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

1927

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/306391

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Transparent and opaque watercolor and graphite on white wove paper

Dimensions

35.3 x 50.6 cm (13 7/8 x 19 15/16 in.)
frame: 59.4 x 72.4 x 1.6 cm (23 3/8 x 28 1/2 x 5/8 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• Signed: dark blue watercolor, l.l.: Edward Hopper/ Portland Me
• exhibition label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: Color in Art show, TR 54/3. Additional label for the Color in Art show, catalogue no. 3
• exhibition label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: TL 11, Hopper exhibition. Uses title "Libby's House".
• exhibition label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: No. 84
• exhibition label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: [ ] Arts Club, no. 33.994
• exhibition label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: no. 293.29
• label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: on textured paper label, in ink: Libby House, Portland/ Edward Hopper/ [3?] Wash Sq, No[,] New York
• exhibition label: 1937?, removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper: Reg. no. 84, case no. 19-2. In graphite at lower edge: 3/37
• exhibition label: removed from old mount, now encapsulated in curatorial file, paper, English: S.E. 3580.2, Maine and its Artists
• (not assigned): Nothing on verso

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Edward Hopper; to Rehn Galleries, New York, New York, 1927. Fogg Art Museum, 1927.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Louise E. Bettens Fund

Accession Year

1927

Object Number

1927.257

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Carol Wolf, 37th Annual Exhibition of American Art, exh. cat. (Cincinnati, OH, 1930), cat. no 46
• Edward Hopper, Retrospective Exhibition, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY, 1933), cat. no. 44, illustrated
• Irma Whitney, "Modern Paintings at Fogg Museum", The Boston Herald (Boston, MA, December 16, 1934), ill. p. 6
• William Germain Dooley, "Realist Trio Show Harvard Their Works", Boston Evening Transcript (Boston, MA, December 8, 1934), p. 7
• Exhibition of Paintings by Edward Hopper, exh. cat., Arts Club of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1934), cat. no. 33
• Nathaniel Pousette-Dart, [Editorial Comment], The Art of Today (February 1935), no. 6, p. 11, reproduced
• Alan Burroughs, Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1936), p. 210
• An Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors and Etchings by Edward Hopper, exh. cat., Carnegie Institute (Pittsburgh, PA, 1937), cat. no. 64
• Ten American Watercolor Painters, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1939), cat. no. 35
• Fogg Art Museum and Benjamin Rowland, Jr., Real and Ideal in American Art, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA, Summer 1948), cat. 30
• Review of "Watercolors by Edward Hopper", Bulletin of the Currier Gallery of Art, Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, NH, 1959), p. E19?
• Watercolors by Edward Hopper, with a Selection of his Etchings, exh. cat., Currier Museum of Art (Manchester, NH, 1959), cat. no. 16
• William B. Miller, Maine and Its Artists, exh. cat., Colby College (Waterville, ME, 1963), cat. no. 65
• Gertrud Mellon, ed., Maine and its Role in American Art 1740-1963, Viking Books (New York, NY, 1963), p. 134, ill.
• Five Distinguished American Artists: Dickinson, Hofmann, Hopper, Shahn, Soyer, exh. cat., New York State Exposition's Art Advisory Committee (Syracuse, NY, 1965), cat. no. 25
• James N. Carpenter, Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1974), pp. 40-41, cat. 3, ill.
• Gail Levin, Hopper's Places, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. (New York, NY, 1985), pp. 11, 12, 31, plate 10
• Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonné, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY and London, England, 1995), W-191, repr.
• Virginia M. Mecklenburg, Edward Hopper: The Watercolors, exh. cat., National Museum of American Art and W. W. Norton & Company (Washington, D.C and New York, NY, 1999), fig. 77, pp. 71-72
• Gail Levin, The Complete Watercolors of Edward Hopper, Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, 2001), W-191, repr.
• Carol Troyen, Judith A. Barter, and Janet L. Comey, Edward Hopper, exh. cat., MFA Publications (Boston, MA, 2007), pp. 93, 95, fig. 37
• Arlene Palmer, A Guide to Victoria Mansion: The Morse-Libby Mansion, a National Historic Landmark Portland, Maine, Victoria Mansion (Portland, Maine, 2012), p. 6, ill.
• Joachim Homann, Margaret Morgan Grasselli, and Miriam Stewart, ed., American Watercolors, 1880–1990: Into the Light, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, 2023), repr. as pl. 32 on p. 101

Exhibition History

• 37th Annual Exhibition of American Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, 06/01/1930 - 06/29/1930
• Unidentified Exhibition, Princeton University, 1931, Princeton University, Princeton, 12/28/1931 - 02/01/1932
• Edward Hopper, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 11/01/1933 - 12/07/1933
• Hopper Exhibition, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, 12/01/1933 - 01/22/1934
• Exhibition of Paintings by Edward Hopper, Arts Club of Chicago, Chicago, 01/02/1934 - 01/16/1934
• Watercolors: Sheeler, Hopper, Burchfield, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/05/1934 - 12/31/1934
• Unidentified Exhibition, Fine Arts Guild, 1935, Fine Arts Guild, Cambridge, 11/29/1935 - 12/07/1935
• American Watercolors from the Museum's Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 02/01/1936 - 02/29/1936
• An Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors and Etchings by Edward Hopper, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 03/11/1937 - 04/25/1937
• Ten American Watercolor Painters, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 04/15/1939 - 05/07/1939
• Unidentified Exhibition, Colby College Museum of Art, 1944, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, 04/22/1944 - 06/05/1944
• Real and Ideal in American Art, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/01/1948 - 09/01/1948
• Unidentified Exhibition, Thomas Crane Public Library, 1955, Thomas Crane Public Library, Quincy, 08/15/1955 - 08/20/1955
• Watercolors by Edward Hopper with a Selection of his Etchings, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, 12/02/1927 - 12/27/1927; Currier Museum of Art, Manchester, 10/08/1959 - 11/15/1959; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, 01/06/1960 - 02/07/1960
• Maine and its Artists, 1710 - 1963, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, 05/04/1963 - 08/31/1963; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 12/12/1963 - 01/31/1964; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 02/01/1964 - 03/22/1964
• Five Distinguished American Artists: Dickinson, Hofmann, Hopper, Shahn, Soyer, Exhibition Grounds, Syracuse, 08/31/1965 - 09/06/1965
• Unidentified Exhibition, Lincoln Laboratory, 1966, Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, 10/15/1966 - 12/15/1966
• Portland Architecture, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, 09/22/1972 - 11/22/1972
• Color in Art: A Tribute to Arthur Pope, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/25/1974 - 06/16/1974
• Edward Hopper's Maine: Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, 1914-1929, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, 07/15/2011 - 10/16/2011

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