ROCKLAND — Inspired by the exhibit “Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth: Rockland, Maine” showing at the Farnsworth Art Museum through August 27, 2023, the Rockland Historical Society has created a historic map of Rockland showing the locations where Edward Hopper painted during the summer of 1926. Underwritten by a generous donation from a local art gallery, the maps will be available for free at the Rockland Historical Society, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and at local art galleries.

Edward Hopper and his wife, Josephine, came to Maine in 1926, and decided to stay in Rockland, at Mrs. Achorn’s Boardinghouse on Lindsey Street. This gritty seacoast town reminded Hopper of Nyack, New York, on the Hudson River, where he grew up, and Gloucester, Massachusetts, the fishing center where he and Josephine had painted with Robert Henri, their mentor.

Hopper painted the rusty fishing vessels, the railroads, the limerock quarries, some large houses, and the site of the Civil War Encampment. The Hoppers had arrived by steamboat and had no automobile, so Hopper found his subjects from the trolley that ran between Camden, Rockland, Thomaston, and Warren. The map shows the route of the trolley through Rockland.

Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth both liked to paint lonely, rugged scenes that illustrated the nobility of the hard-working people of Rockland.

“The exhibit at the Farnsworth makes us aware of the similarity of their celebration of the common man,” said Ann Morris, in a news release.