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Channel Edward Hopper With a Night in His Bedroom

Stay in the childhood home of one of history’s greatest painters

Erin Blakemore

Correspondent

October 5, 2016

The room has plenty of "Hudson River light" to spark the artist in a lucky bidder and their guest. Carole Perry

Part of the reconstruction was inspired by this study of the artist's bedroom, which shows his self-portrait on the wall. Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by the Whitney Museum of American Art

Hopper lived in the room for the first 28 years of his life. Carole Perry

The room was reconstructed in period style by two architects and contains the artist's bed frame and other artifacts. Carole Perry

Do you wish you could live the life of one of history’s greatest painters? Get out your brushes and your wallet: As Sarah Cascone reports for ArtNet News, fans of the American realist can bid on the chance to stay in a recreation of Edward Hopper’s bedroom in his Nyack, New York, house—a room the artist himself immortalized in some of his early paintings.

Hopper was born in 1882 and he grew up in the Nyack house where he lived until 1910. His bedroom wasn’t just a place where the young artist snoozed. Rather, it influenced his work. The house and the bedroom overlook the Hudson River, which cast its light into his living space every day. The “Hudson River light” was known for its clarity and intensity, which attracted some of America’s greatest landscape painters to the area. Hopper went on to be influenced by the Hudson River School of painters, who flocked to places like Nyack to depict its fields and waters. Inspired by the boats and rocks he could see from his window and around his house, Hopper honed his artistic skills.

The artist's house fell into disrepair after Hopper died in 1967, and it was slated for destruction until it was saved by fans. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now is known as Edward Hopper House Art Center, a non-profit art center that preserves Hopper’s legacy, showcases his work and offers workshops and classes for art lovers.

Interior designer Ernest de la Torre and architect Walter Cain used one of Hopper’s studies of his own bedroom around 1905 to recreate his room in period style. The second-story bedroom includes Hopper’s own bedframe, writes Cascone (don’t worry, the mattress is new) and a self-portrait of the young artist he painted in 1905-1906.

So far, the auction, which will benefit local arts programs, has garnered $650 in bids. The winner can stay in the room with one other guest and includes dinner and a garden breakfast. Bidding will end on October 15 in a live event.

Can’t afford to live like Hopper? The restaged room’s open for visitors, too, so take a peek next time you’re near NYC. The house has also made a walking tour of Nyack available as well, for those who want to go deeper into Hopper's life by exploring his boyhood haunts.