Josephine Nivison Hopper, 74 Stairs to Studio at Three Washington Square North, n.d.

Narrator: Josephine Nivison Hopper made this watercolor of the stairs to the Hoppers’ studio at 3 Washington Square North. Jo and Edward had been married in 1924. They lived and worked in that studio for the rest of their lives.

Kirsty Bell: And in all of the descriptions of their studio, this incredible staircase is mentioned. It was seventy-four steps up to the top floor where they both lived. And so this watercolor is a picture of the stairwell. And you can also see that it's very light and airy. It doesn't have this kind of weighty, geometric slow, ponderousness of Hopper's work. 

Narrator: Writer and critic Kirsty Bell. 

Kirsty Bell: It's really quite light and quickly made, but captures a lot of the atmosphere of that interior space. In many ways, she was quite opposite to Edward Hopper in character. The nature of her work and the way she worked could not have been more different from Edward who struggled to find subject matter, who painted very, very slowly, was kind of very self-critical and fraught in the decision process of beginning a painting and Josephine Hopper, she just painted everything.