Write With Me Club: June

The theme this month is writing people

Last week in New York I stood in front of this oil painting. For those not already familiar with it, it is A Woman in the Sun and it was painted in 1961 by Edward Hopper.

Hopper was famous for his paintings depicting loneliness and isolation, although that’s not what I saw when I stood in front of this painting in the Whitney Museum of American Art on Wednesday, as a woman who also likes to stand in the sun on first waking, I saw a kindred spirit, I saw a woman standing in her own full power, at one in body and mind.

The woman in the painting is actually Hopper’s wife, Josephine Nivison, who was his model for their entire life together and, when they met, was a more successful artist than the man who would become her husband. It was actually thanks to Josephine that Hopper got his first public display among a collection of other artworks and after that, well you will know he went on to become one of America’s most famous artists.

And Josephine? She put her own talent to one side to sup…