Huntington Highlight: New Hopper Stamp to be Unveiled to Public

The public is invited to attend a special free event at The Huntington on Wednesday—and if you happen to be a stamp lover, you especially don't want to miss it.

At 11 a.m., in the Scott Gallery loggia, the latest addition to the United States Postal Service's American Treasures stamp series will be released at a First Day of Sale event. The stamp will be the tenth in the series and showcases Edward Hopper's 1935 painting "The Long Leg", an evocative piece in The Huntington's collection. 

I stopped by last Friday to meet Virginia Steele Scott Chief Curator Jessica Todd Smith, who will provide remarks at the First Day of Sale ceremony. "I just love Hopper," she said, adding that she plans to buy "quite a few" of the stamps herself. 

Smith explained that Hopper came out of the second generation of an art movement known as the , which tended to depict a gritty urban realism. Hopper studied with artists such as Robert Henri and Kenneth Hayes Miller (whose works are also represented in The Huntington's holdings) and their influence shows in his drawings and paintings of cafe, street and theatre scenes.

But as Smith pointed out, "There's a whole body of his work that represent the more rural areas he lived in." These works reflect a view of nature that is infused with melancholy and loneliness, emotions that characterize much of Hopper's work.

For example, in "The Long Leg", a single sailboat tacks along a beautiful stretch of coast near the Long Point Light at Provincetown, MA. Though at first glance, it appears to be an innocuous summer-holiday scene, a closer look shows that there are no people visible in the painting—only the boat, the sea, the shore and the lighthouse. 

The Huntington's free audio guide for the gallery includes observations about "The Long Leg" given by actor Steve Martin, who calls Hopper "one of my favorite American artists" and owns several of his works. Martin says, "Hopper had a genius for creating spare, provocative paintings like this. They're realistic, but they also evoke an unsettling mood of solitude and isolation. That's what made Hopper a modernist in his time and it's what always keeps me enjoying his paintings."

The USPS ceremony will include the unveiling of an enlargement of the Hopper stamp. Meanwhile, a USPS table will be set up outside The Huntington's Bookstore & More from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., where representatives from the Postal Service will be selling the 44-cent “Forever” stamps and offering a first-day-of-sale commemorative cancellation with a special pictorial postmark along with other philatelic items such as First Day of Issue ceremony programs and First Day digital covers.

The bookstore also offers a range of Hopper-related merchandise, including postcards, note cards and posters. 

Due to limited seating, reservations are required for the ceremony only. Please RSVP at (661) 775-6696 before August 23.