{"secondaryobjectnumber":null,"periodterms":[],"creditline":"Laura P. Hall Memorial Collection","caption":"Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), Universalist Church, 1926. Watercolor and gouache over graphite; 35.6 × 50.8 cm, 55.9 × 71.1 cm (mat). Laura P. Hall Memorial Collection (x1946-268)","cultureterms":[{"id":2038492,"culture":"American"}],"type":"artobject","dimensionsproposed":"Proposed frame (ivory tangent): 68.6 × 83.8 × 3.8 cm (27 × 33 × 1 1/2 in.)","terms":[{"id":2038492,"term":"American","aatid":300107956,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2051964,"term":"drawings","aatid":300033973,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2107248,"term":"steeples","aatid":300104224,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2053164,"term":"watercolors","aatid":300078925,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2120555,"term":"skylines","aatid":300075416,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2120559,"term":"streetscapes","aatid":300249570,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2084585,"term":"churches","aatid":300007466,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2085195,"term":"houses","aatid":300005433,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2044353,"term":"wove paper","aatid":300014187,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2162861,"term":"graphite","aatid":300011098,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2167929,"term":"watercolor","aatid":300015045,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2167941,"term":"gouache","aatid":300070114,"termtype":"Materials"}],"geography":[{"displaygeography":"Place depicted: North America, United States, Massachusetts, Gloucester, Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church","code":"Place depicted","continent":"North America","subcontinent":null,"country":"United States","region":null,"state":"Massachusetts","city":"Gloucester","county":"Essex County","subregion":null,"locale":"Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church","locus":null,"river":null,"excavation":null,"geoname":"http://www.geonames.org/maps/google_42.616_-70.662.html","location":{"lat":"","lon":""}}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Proposed frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"68.57"},{"element":"Proposed frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"83.81"},{"element":"Proposed frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"3.80"},{"element":"mat","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"55.87"},{"element":"mat","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"71.11"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"35.60"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"50.80"}],"markings":null,"accessionyear":"1946-01-01","newaccession":0,"makers":[{"id":5292,"displayname":"Edward Hopper","displaydate":"American, 1882–1967","datebegin":1882,"dateend":1967,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Edward Hopper, American, 1882–1967","displayorder":1}],"datecomputed":1926,"signed":"Signed in blue watercolor, lower left: Edward Hopper","restrictions":null,"classification":"Drawings","packages":[{"packageid":196242,"name":"web_2021_01_ArtForStreets"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":206417,"name":"image_descriptions_top250"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"},{"packageid":265624,"name":"Prison Teaching Initiative Project"},{"packageid":268550,"name":"Web_CA_2025_North American"},{"packageid":182970,"name":"P&D_Drawings_Watercolors"},{"packageid":194459,"name":"PUAM_Watercolors & Pastels"}],"catalograisonne":null,"classifications":[{"id":2053164,"classification":"watercolors"},{"id":2051964,"classification":"drawings"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":4,"citation":"West to Wesselmann: American Drawings and Watercolors from the Princeton University Art Museum (October 16, 2004–July 23, 2006)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2004-10-16","enddate":"2006-07-23","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/4"},{"exhibitionid":961,"citation":"An Educated Eye: The Princeton University Art Museum Collection (Friday, February 22, 2008 - Sunday, June 15, 2008)","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2008-02-22","enddate":"2008-06-15","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/961"}],"cultures":[],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/STU00688"],"displaytitle":"Universalist Church","displayculture":null,"displaymaker":"Edward Hopper, American, 1882–1967","captionhtml":"Edward Hopper (American, 1882–1967), Universalist Church, 1926. Watercolor and gouache over graphite; 35.6 × 50.8 cm, 55.9 × 71.1 cm (mat). Laura P. Hall Memorial Collection (x1946-268)","displaydate":"1926","medium":"Watercolor and gouache over graphite","media":[{"id":162353,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/STU00688","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM Photo"}],"displayperiod":null,"extended_content":true,"campuscollections":"false","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004)","citation":"John Wilmerding et al., American Art in the Princeton University Art Museum: volume 1: drawings and watercolors, (Princeton: Princeton University Art Museum; New Haven, CT; London: Yale University Press, 2004), p. 242, cat. no. 62; p. 243 (illus.); p. 319, checklist no. 481","date":2004,"id":420,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/57236887"},{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2007), 298 (illus.)","date":2007,"id":474,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/191864564"},{"boilertext":"Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: the art and the artist, (New York: Norton; Whitney Museum of Amserican Art, 1980).","citation":"Gail Levin, Edward Hopper: the art and the artist, (New York: Norton; Whitney Museum of Amserican Art, 1980)., p. 44, pl. 203","date":1980,"id":5923,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/5942572"},{"boilertext":"Watercolors by Edward Hopper: with a selection of his etchings: [exhibition held at] the Currier Gallery of Art, October 8-November 15, 1959 ; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, December 2-27 ; Wadsworth Atheneum, January 6-February 7, 1960., (Manchester, NH: Currier Gallery of Art, 1959). ","citation":"Watercolors by Edward Hopper: with a selection of his etchings: [exhibition held at] the Currier Gallery of Art, October 8-November 15, 1959 ; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, December 2-27 ; Wadsworth Atheneum, January 6-February 7, 1960., (Manchester, NH: Currier Gallery of Art, 1959). , no. 9","date":1959,"id":5926,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/7031410"},{"boilertext":"Sue Welsh Reed and Carol Troyen, Awash in color: Homer, Sargent, and the great American watercolor, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, in association with Bulfinch Press, Little, Brown and Co., 1993).","citation":"Sue Welsh Reed and Carol Troyen, Awash in color: Homer, Sargent, and the great American watercolor, (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, in association with Bulfinch Press, Little, Brown and Co., 1993).","date":1993,"id":5928,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/635659037"},{"boilertext":"The Gloucester years: [exhibition] February 6 thru March 4, 1982, (New York: Grace Borgenicht Gallery, 1982).","citation":"The Gloucester years: [exhibition] February 6 thru March 4, 1982, (New York: Grace Borgenicht Gallery, 1982)., p. 18 (illus.)","date":1982,"id":5929,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/9297664"},{"boilertext":"Ernest T DeWald and Paul F Norton, The Laura P. Hall memorial collection of prints and drawings: bequest of Clifton R. Hall, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University. Department of Art and Archaeology, 1947).","citation":"Ernest T DeWald and Paul F Norton, The Laura P. Hall memorial collection of prints and drawings: bequest of Clifton R. Hall, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University. Department of Art and Archaeology, 1947)., no. 45 [as Universalist Church, Gloucester]","date":1947,"id":5930,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/28278695"},{"boilertext":"American water colour exhibition: catalogue 1954-55, (New Delhi, India: All India Fine Arts et Crafts Society, 1954).","citation":"American water colour exhibition: catalogue 1954-55, (New Delhi, India: All India Fine Arts et Crafts Society, 1954).","date":1954,"id":5931,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/3691989"},{"boilertext":"Lloyd Goodrich, Edward Hopper retrospective exhibition, (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art?, 1950). ","citation":"Lloyd Goodrich, Edward Hopper retrospective exhibition, (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art?, 1950). ","date":1950,"id":5932,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/1214368"},{"boilertext":"Lloyd Goodrich, Edward Hopper, (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1964).","citation":"Lloyd Goodrich, Edward Hopper, (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1964)., no. 93","date":1964,"id":5933,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/1181004"},{"boilertext":"Ten Americans: Avery, Burchfield, Demuth, Dove, Homer, Hopper, Marin, Prendergast, Sargent, Wyeth, (New York: Andrew Crispo Gallery?, 1974).","citation":"Ten Americans: Avery, Burchfield, Demuth, Dove, Homer, Hopper, Marin, Prendergast, Sargent, Wyeth, (New York: Andrew Crispo Gallery?, 1974)., no. 82 (illus.)","date":1974,"id":5934,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/980434"},{"boilertext":"Alexander Farnham, Architectural patterns, subjects for the artist’s brush, (Stockton, NJ: Farnham, 1974).","citation":"Alexander Farnham, Architectural patterns, subjects for the artist’s brush, (Stockton, NJ: Farnham, 1974)., pl. 18","date":1974,"id":5935,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/5003062"},{"boilertext":"Roopa-lekhā 26, (1954/1955).","citation":"Roopa-lekhā 26, (1954/1955).","date":1954,"id":5937,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/1697061"},{"boilertext":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"}],"nowebuse":"False","periods":[],"department":"Prints and Drawings","attribute_groups":[{"id":2199325,"term":"North American Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199327,"term":"Prints and Drawings","termtype":"Collecting Area"}],"daterange":"A.D. 1900-1945","dateend":1926,"depicted":[],"titles":[{"title":"Universalist Church","titletype":"Published","displayorder":1}],"hasimage":"true","creditlinerepro":"","objectnumber":"x1946-268","inscribed":"Inscribed in blue watercolor, lower left below signature: Gloucester\r\nInscribed in graphite, on verso upper left: Universalist Church","texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery, New York, 1926; Dr. J. S. Bennett; his sale, fall 1927; Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery, New York; Clifton R. Hall, Princeton, New Jersey.;","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"\r\nBased in New York City, Hopper began working in watercolor during an excursion in 1923 to the fishing community of Gloucester, Massachusetts. He returned there in 1926 while spending the summer in Rockland, Maine—the site of the two adjacent compositions. In this partial view of Gloucester’s eighteenth-century Universalist Church, Hopper shows only the elegant white spire, obscuring the rest of the building with intervening houses. Building up his thin layers of watercolor and gouache with broad, laconic brushstrokes, Hopper imbues the structures with an iridescent light, in counterpoint to the stark diagonal shadows cast by chimneys, gabled windows, and eaves.

","remarks":"Painting on Paper: American Watercolors at Princeton"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\r\nNew York realist artist Edward Hopper first traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, in 1912 on a painting excursion. He returned in 1923 and, just as Winslow Homer had fifty years before, began working in watercolor. A town on Cape Ann founded by fishermen in 1663, Gloucester became a thriving art colony visited by early Modernists such as Stuart Davis, Childe Hassam, and Maurice Prendergast. By 1924, Hopper had produced enough work to mount an exhibition of watercolors at the Frank K. M. Rehn Gallery in New York, which sold out. Now able to give up his career as a commercial illustrator, he returned to Gloucester again in the summer of 1926, when he was painting primarily in Rockland, Maine, and executed a series of water­colors that included Universalist Church.

\r\nInitially, Hopper vowed not to use this church as a motif. His wife, Jo, remembered: \"Hopper avoided the crowds painting views of the Universalist Meeting House on Middle Street. Not painting the church, he sat in front of it and painted the Davis house across the street.\" Perhaps unable to resist the church’s combined symbolic and aesthetic values, Hopper finally joined the \"crowds\" in painting it.

\r\nFounded in 1779 as the first Universalist Church in America, the structure is represented here through its steeple, since Hopper chose to obscure the rest of the building with intervening houses. Building up his thin layers of watercolor in one sitting, he could imbue even these thick structures with the iridescence of New England light. Hopper’s architectural subjects have traditionally been interpreted in anthropomorphic terms, as surrogates for the lone human figures that inhabit his paintings. In  this instance, the lines of the roofs adjacent to the church lead the eye across both axes of the image to the steeple. Hopper’s view of the church from below underscores both the spiritual resolve and the physical resilience embodied by this historic American structure.

","remarks":null}],"datebegin":1926,"sortnumber":"1946 268x","published_date":"2026-04-07 02:00:05.206451","objectid":5509,"dimensions":"35.6 × 50.8 cm (14 × 20 in.)\r\nmat: 55.9 × 71.1 cm (22 × 28 in.)","on_view":false}