The paintings of Edward Hopper take on a whole new meaning in the age of social distancing
Lesson summary
Hi there, I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and this is Plain English lesson 271. The full lesson can be found at PlainEnglish.com/271.
We’re going to do something a little different today. Instead of talking about a current event, I thought we would talk about an artist and his work. The artist is Edward Hopper, fairly famous American oil painter. His work is benefitting from a burst in popularity online these days, since his subjects are often captured alone.
Edward Hopper’s paintings
If ever there were an artist who captured the term “social distancing” and the isolation this crazy time imposes on us, it is Edward Hopper. His paintings capture scenes of solitude and stillness—individual people or couples going about their daily lives, unaware that they’re being observed, often alone and often just sitting still.
Edward Hopper was an American painter who lived from 1882 to 1967. He was born on the outskirts of New York City and lived for much of his life in Greenwich Village, a neighborhood of New York, and on the beach in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
His most famous painting is titled, “Nighthawks” and it’s one of my favorites; it’s on display at the Art Institute of Chicago. It depicts a diner, late at night, on an empty street corner in Greenwich Village. A diner is a type of informal restaurant. The streets are deserted and dark; the diner is well-lit. Hopper places the viewer across the street, so we can see the contrast of the dark streets and the brightly lit interior. We can see inside through huge picture windows.
There’s a single server behind the counter, bending down as if to wash dishes. Behind him are two large coffee urns—overkill for the moment, but hinting at how busy the diner will be in the morning. We can see a well-dressed couple facing us as they sit at the counter. They could have been on a date that went long and stopped at the diner because they didn’t want the night to end. They’re not explicitly holding hands, but their hands could be touching. It looks like they’re chatting with the server.
But those aren’t the people that your eyes focus on. Instead, your eye is drawn to a single man at the counter, the only other person in the painting. His back is to us, so we don’t see his face. He’s dressed in a suit and a hat; he’s leaning forward at the counter, almost slumping forward. He’s not facing the server; he’s not facing the couple. He is just facing out the picture window opposite, but his head is tilted down, so he’s probably not looking anywhere. You wonder why he’s alone; you wonder whether he’s just alone tonight, or if this is a typical night for him.
That is the type of figure that Edward Hopper paints so convincingly. To look at these solitary characters is to ask, Who is this person? Why is he or she alone? Is he coming or going? Is he happy or sad? And you can imagine any number of scenarios. His subjects are often not in a state of flux: they’re not moving around. They’re still, and often alone.
In “Office in a Small City,” we see a man in his office, on a high floor, taking a break from work at his desk and gazing out the window, over the rooftops of the buildings across the street. Is he taking a creative break, pondering what comes next in his work? Or is he bored, killing time?
“Automat” has another of his classic characters. We don’t have automats anymore, but an automat was like a restaurant of vending machines. We see a woman sitting alone at a table. She’s dressed warmly and it’s dark outside. She has one glove on, one glove off, and a plate with crumbs on it in front of her, an empty look on her face. Did she rush in to grab a snack quickly, so she only had time to take off one glove? Was she waiting for someone who never showed up? Maybe she just got off work and stopped for a bite to eat on the way home; or perhaps it’s early morning and she’s on her way to work.
Hopper’s subjects weren’t just solitary people. He manages to make buildings look solitary and lonely, too. “Early Sunday Morning” shows the low-rise buildings of Seventh Avenue in New York City at sunrise. The shops aren’t open and nobody is in view. But if you know New York—either now or then, in 1930—you can imagine there were probably people around, just out of view.
Another famous one, “Gas,” depicts a lonely gas station at the end of a quiet American road. This was in the days well before big interstate highways, so the road is just two lanes. There are three pumps in a row and a small building. A solitary figure is at one of the pumps—no car in sight, so he must be the employee. And you just wonder, how many hours go by without any customers here? What are the interactions like when a car finally pulls up?
These are great pictures to ponder after a few months of social distancing.
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If you visit New York, you can find his paintings on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art. There are also a few at the Met and the MoMa. “Nighthawk,” as I mentioned, is here in Chicago. Writing this article, I saw a lot of his works are on display in museums near Chicago—one in Des Moines, one in Indianapolis—and I thought, I should take a trip and see them. But alas, those museums are all closed, for now. Maybe in the fall.
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