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The late 19th century and the early years of the 20 th century mark the beginning of what we
call modern society. The industrial revolution on the one hand and the rise of capitalism on
the other, gave way to a new, industrialised, socially fluid, urban civilisation. As a result of
this breakdown of the former , simpler way of life, at the dawn of the 20 th century people
find themselves͞À
 
 
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À À     À À ë lazer, 1947: 379)In this essay I am
going to consider the ways in which modernist changes impact on the human experience
and discuss them in relation to some of Edward Hopper͛s paintings.

enerally speaking, modernity is a post-traditional order, deriving from the sense of a

certain discontinuity between the present and the past. Hence, it can essentially be
understood as a set of changing circumstances. At the beginning of the 20 th century, as the
world was changing and people were struggling to adjust to this, questions were raised as to
what was culturally relevant, and what should the artistical voice of the new world be like.
In this context, modernis m emerged as the cultural expression of modernity and was
characterised by the celebration of the ordinary. Hence, the shift of focus in modernist
visual art gave way to a new trend based on expressing feelings, subjective interpretations
of reality, and making the insignificant relevantartistically.

Respecting the tradition of modernist art, Edward Hopper derived his subject matter from
two main sources: the imagery of everyday American life ëgas stations, motels, restaurants,
theaters, railroads, and street scenes) and its inhabitants; and secondly, seascapes and rural
landscapes. His major emotional themes are solitude, loneliness, regret, boredom,
alienation and resignation, and he demonstrates these emotions in various environments,
including the offi ce, in public places, in apartments, on the road, or on vacation . As Holchin
argues,         

 À
    À     ëHolchin, 1981: page). His works offer a
great reflection of the human experience in the modern world. Respecting the modernist
tradition of celebrating the everyday, the ord inary, Hopper͛s paintings are snapshots of
characters going about their daily routines. According to Holchin,     
    
   
   
 
  

 
 

    ÀÀÀ
 ëHolchin, 1981: page)

By painting the city life in the 20s and 30s in America, what he shows is a disturbed world
emotionally, a distorted version of the American Dream . Seeking metaphor to describe
common experience, his paintings capture those aspects that best describe the life of the
modern man in a big city: alienation and despair, failed relationships, a mood of ultimate
disillusionment or lives gone wrong, the sense of rootlesness and self-questioning.

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One of Hooper͛s most famous paintings, Nighthawks ë1942) conveys a mood of loneliness
and desolation through the emptinessthe of anonymous non-communicating figures. About
this painting Hopper said :         
 

       Ô ëwww.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper)The
viewpoint is cinematic, from the sidewalk, as if the viewer was approaching the restaurant.
The diner's harsh electric light sets it apart from the dark night outside, enhancing the mood
and subtle emotion. Outside, the stillness of the deserted street suggests an echoing silence.
The viewer can almost hear his steps as he walks past the restaurant. As in many Hopper
paintings, the interaction is minimal There is no person , no car passing by to suggest the
possibility of human contactThe vieweris located forever outside, and alone. There is no
door in and no door out to the restaurant. Only the sidewalk , and the empty street
wandering into the unknown .

The night in the city is a recurring theme in Hopper͛s works, probably preferred because it
captures moments of stillness from all the rushing by during the day. The city itself seems
quiet and lonely at night, and it becomes a space that echoes and amplifies the loneliness of
the individual. In Night Windows ë1928) for instance, Hopper sets the viewer in the mute
stillness of the night once again. Placing us in a dark, quiet corner, looking at the woman͛s
apartment through the uncovered windows, Hopper mak es of a voyeur. There is an
atmosphere of silence and secrecy about the painting, like a moment of breaking into
someone͛s intimate space. Also, there is this sense that the viewer is looking at the
woman͛s apartment through another window, possibly from his own house across the
street. This visual perspective and the location bring the viewer into the drama. We do not
simply look at the painting, we are actually in it. Thus, by making us relate to the situation,
Hopper implies a certain narrativewithout give us it altogether. So we are in our apartment,
gazing through our neighbor͛s window. There is nothing unusual about the woman͛s
circumstances, but somehow this glimpse of her ͞ordinaryÔ becomes the viewer͛s
  . The painting captures the experience of living in a big city, suggesting
closeness without contact. The use of the window as a metaphor for human existence
suggests the thousands of lives and stories compressed into their homes, isolated and
unaware of the enormous world about them or about their place in it.

Moreover, Edward Hopper uses the window as a symbol for the bridge between the
individual and collective, the great outdoors, the city life. Unlike Night Windows, where the
character was being looked at through a window, in his 19 55 painting Morning Sun, Hopper
illustrates a woman looking through a window, outside her private universe, into the world.
The painting shows a woman who had just woken up, looking through a wide open window
towards the city, as the sun rushes into her fa ce, filling up her room and casting a long shade
of her silhouette on the white bed. The woman is still and seems lost in thought. Her whole
posture and the visual style of painting of the room suggest silence, loneliness and
meditation. The open window re veals an industrial nation of buildings outside. Facing this,
the individual experiences a lost feeling, overwhelmed by the idea of an self-sufficient
society where no individual can have a unique and personal life . The space of the room
becomes a mirror for the limitations of her own existence. The bare wall and white bed, and
her anxious, lost appearance as opposed to the noisy, crowded city ͞performingÔ in front of

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her eyes create yet another impression of the h uman isolation in the impersonal urban life.
The woman in this painting is every other person out there waking up in the morning and
taking a few moments to try and get their head around the meaning of their existence and
their place in the delirious world outside. There is a strong sense when you look at this
painting,that it is actually about  .

In the same vibe, another painting celebrating the first moments of a person͛s day is
Morning in a city ë1944). The woman in this one is standing naked before an open window
looking at the city. The exposure of the isolated, naked self under strong light suggests the
most truthful, unpretended state of the human being. All alone in her room, the woman
allows herself to step out of the costume she wears every day. As Hochin argues, ͞ !
   À         ë----)The woman seems
deep in thought as she gazes outside at the buildings from across the street. Essentially,
these suggest the proximity of other people. Yet, the woman is alone. The window and the
curtains create the border between herself and the others .Morning in the City is a metaphor
for our place in the world: we are forever separated, but close, crowded but alone.
Projected on the background of enormous world around, each person becomes sm all and
unimportant. However, in this painting, like many of Hopper͛s works, the sunlight brings in a
sense of reassurance, of optimism. As described it, this is ͞     
      À  À    

Another painting making use of the recurring theme of the open window, Excursion into
Philosophy ë1959)depicts the artificiality of human relationships. Unlike the other works,
where people are alone, this one is about lon eliness within a relationship .The man looks sad
and solitary. He is gazing down at the small rectangle of light reflected on the carpet. This
piece of yellow light represents the boundaries of his existence. The sky is infinite, there are
countless possibilities out there, and still, as slaves to choices, people frame their lives the
way a window frames the sunlight.

The woman sleeping behind him is half naked, exposed. The two had probably been in love,
but now he ignores her presence and turns his back to her beauty. It is probably the kind of
situation where, if you look at something long enough, it becomes ordinary. The manis
dressed up, whichis probably a signifier for a career, for wealth and success. Hence, he
embodies the material ideals of modern life.And yet, something is missing in that room
there, between those people, in their lives. The open book- probably a philosophy book
judging by the name of the painting - looks like it has just been put down. After reading
philosophy, the man is projected in an excursion beyond what was there, in that room.
Beyond his house, his beautiful wife, his successful career and his fancy clothes. He seems
hypnotised by the rectangle of light on the floor and there is this feeling about him as if that
he wants more. There is a feeling of regret in his gaze, suggesting that the sacrifices one has
to make for the material fulfilments of modern life are often very costly in terms of what
they do to our soul.

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Like a collection of photographs of strangers, Edward Hopper͛ s paintings capture the

ephemerality of the human being passing thorough, coming and going, in their constant
quest for the self. The human presence is port rayed as light and disposable, and offers a
very good reflection of the place of men in the modern world. Hopper͛s paintings have a
dream-like quality, where everything becomes symbolic. Fragments of experience capture
the collision of the everyday with the sense of desire, of hope, of extraordinary. Looking at
his paintings, one has the odd sensation of having seen such a thing many times before . Like
Hopper himself put it, put it ͞
 "    # 
  $  À "     À# 
    À À  

    À Ô ë
uoted in rosu)In Hopper͛s paintings, people are sad and
lonely, but somehow this has the opposite effect on the viewer. The paintings have a sense
of possibility.It is as if, the moment we look at these people and relate to them, we set them
free from their loneliness.There is this idea that if we are all alone in the world, then we are
all together in that.

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1.
Lyons, D. ë1995) Edward Hopper and the American Imagination. Norton

2.
Davidson, A. A. ë1994) Early American Modernist Painting:1910-1935. Da Capo Press

3.
lazer, N. ë1947) The Alienation of Modern Man, [Online] available on Periodicals Archive
Online: http://pao.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing.do ëAcessed: 22 November 2010)

4.
Holchin, L. ë1981) Edward Hopper and the imagery of Alienation , [Online] Available on
Periodicals Archive Online:

5.
http://pao.chadwyck.co.uk/marketing.do ëAccessed: 24 November 2010)

6.
Schmied, W ë1995) Edward Hopper: portraits of America. Prestel

7.
Modernism and self identity