Without any doubt, Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper are major figures of the American twentieth-century painting. Contemporary and realist painters, they have been put side by side, as much as pulled apart. Though Hopper himself hated the comparison, we will attempt to analyse in the following paper what unites and divides those artists. After a short presentation of both painters, we will examine their subject matters, their techniques and methods of painting, as well as the meaning of their work of art.

Before analysing and juxtaposing the work of Norman Rockwell and Edward Hopper, let’s introduce briefly our two main characters. As you will see, this will considerably help us understand the similarities as well as the differences between the artists’ paintings.
Norman Rockwell was born in 1894 and shortly aspired to become an illustrator. At fifteen years old he started to study art full-time: he briefly attended the National Academy of Design before joining the Arts Students League in New-York. He soon began to do illustrations for a magazine published by the Boy Scouts of America. In 1916, he drew his first cover of the Post, the most popular magazine of these days. That was the beginning of an association that lasted for 47 years, involving 321 covers. Norman Rockwell had also designed advertising and commercial illustrations.
Edward Hopper was a contemporary painter of Norman Rockwell. He was born in 1882 and, even as a youngster, showed a real aptitude for art. He therefore went to New-York and enrolled at the New-York School of Art. However, contrary to Norman Rockwell, he had to wait for nearly twenty years before becoming famous. Meanwhile, he worked as a commercial illustrator though he despised doing illustrations for print. His real career as a painter started in 1923 when he won the Logan Prize from the Chicago Society of Etchers and has later been regarded as a major figure of the American twentieth-century painting.
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