Hotel window

“Hotel Window” (Eng. Hotel Window) - a picture of Edward Hopper, painted in 1955. Hopper's works are primarily known for realistic scenes in which the themes of isolation, loneliness among urban life, “selfhood” are touched upon. The work “Hotel Window” is a good example of how the artist explored this topic in his work.

He portrays an elegant old woman sitting on a sofa in the lobby of a nameless hotel, who stares absentmindedly out of a darkened window. Hopper, who is called the “gloomy socialist realist”, does not want to show a specific location: the picture shows a collective image of all cheap hotels, the surroundings of which convey a particularly vivid sense of atmosphere of loneliness and longing. Edward Hopper's signature techniques and recognizable palette turn an ordinary frame into a deep, almost surreal storyline on the verge of sleep and reality, reality and cinematic production. Harsh light, contrasts, rich colors ...

“There is nothing exact about it, just improvisation. - Hopper wrote about the picture; “This is not some special hotel lobby, but I walked many times along Thirtieth Street from Broadway to Fifth Avenue, and there are a lot of crappy hotels there.” This probably inspired the plot. Loneliness? Yes, I think that [it turned out] is more lonely than I planned. "

In general, the characters that Hopper painted seem to be extremely alienated - they seem to live in a world in which people not only do not interact, but do not even want to be bothered. It is almost impossible to imagine this woman entering into dialogue with another hotel guest, even if she appears in the same hall.
Hopper was familiar with all these “non-interactions” and feelings: at 41, having married the artist Josephine Nivison, he could only be “close”, but never “together”, although she served as a model for many of his works.

Hopper did not like to talk about his works and explain them, discuss the themes of tragedy and longing, which were seen in his paintings by spectators and critics.
And when he was asked what a lonely woman symbolizes for him in the meager atmosphere of a cheap hotel, he said in his usual manner that he simply wanted to convey how the light fell on the walls and objects.
In 1939, the artist wrote: "So much in any art is an expression of the subconscious, that it seems to me that the most important qualities are invested unconsciously in it, and the conscious mind does not tell him almost anything important."

The canvas was created in the period after the creative crisis, which the master experienced - in those years, Hopper wrote very little large-scale works. Apparently this played a role in assessing his legacy.

The painting "Hotel Window" today is among the "top" works of the artist: on November 29, 2006, it was sold at Sotheby's for $ 26 million - much higher than its estimated value of 10 million. At that time, it was a price record for Hopper's paintings.

Author: Ekaterina Penchkovskaya