Little Boy Looking at the Sea

There are artists whose early works can leave you breathless. Edward Hopper, the master of loneliness and urban scenes, created this ink drawing, entitled Little Boy Looking at the Sea, when he was ... nine years old. Little Hopper drew it on the back of a report card. The child in the image, facing away from the viewer with his hands clasped behind his back and his feet inches from the lapping surf, seems both younger and older than that. From his size, he appears to be just past toddlerhood; but his posture is pensive and he seems utterly devoid of playfulness, like so many of the sober, solitary adults in Hopper’s later work. Like the young boy in his sketch, Hopper spent much of his young life by the water—his childhood room overlooked the Hudson River, and he would often prowl its banks with a sketchbook in hand to capture the construction and rigging of the boats docked there.

It is reported that Hopper, born to a middle-class family in Nyack, New York, began drawing at age five. His parents were very supportive and encouraging, gifting him a blackboard at seven and instructional drawing books at ten. Hopper himself even labeled his childhood paint box with the phrase “WOULD-BE ARTIST.” 

Have a great Thursday!

P.S. Check out these Edward Hopper drawings that will blow your mind!

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