AUTOMAT, by EDWARD HOPPER
1.Biography of the painter………………………………………………………..3 2.Formal analysis…………………………………………………………………..3 a.Description of the painting……………………………………………………..3 b.Personal opinion…………………………………………………………………3 3.Formal qualities…………………………………………………………………..3 4.Style………………………………………………………………………………...3 5.Interpretation……………………………………………………………………...4 6.Context……………………………………………………………………………..4 7.Judgement…………………………………………………………………………4
1. Biography of the painter. Edward Hopper was born in Nyack, a town on the Hudson River. He studied at the New York School of Art, some years later he travelled to Europe where he forged his style. Some years later he returns to New York, where he finished dying and there changed his style of painting, and begins to interpret themes of life of USA.
2. Formal analysis. A) Description of a paiting. In the middle ground there is a table with two chairs and the main character is sitting on one of them. The main character is a woman. This woman is having a coffee. She’s wearing a green jacket, a yellow hat, a dark shirt and we think that she is also wearing a skirt. She is sad and pensive. In the background, on the left, there is a little brown heater next to the glass cabinet. In the middle of the SP background there is a fruit bowl on window ledge, in which the lights are reflected, what makes us think it’s at night. On the right, there seems to be a railing.
B) Personal opinion. Raul’s opinion: In my opinion, the author draws this picture because he wanted to represent the solitude of a woman. Alex’s opinion: I think that the author went to a pub and he saw a beautiful woman who seemed sad, and he fell in love with her, and he decided to take her a photograph.
3. Formal qualities. The painting was painted in oil on canvas. The painter’s perspective is straight on. The painting has warm colours. Its atmosphere is of solitude and we think that the painting hasn’t any symbol.
4. Style. The style of the painting is modernism. The model of the painting is Hopper’s wife, but he altered her face to make her look younger. As in Hopper’s painting the expression of the woman and her clothes are ambiguous, she has removed only one glove, what makes us think the woman women is in a hurry. The time of the painting is autumn or winter because the woman’s clothes are warm, and it appears that it was at night because the lamp is reflected on the window
5. Interpretation. The artist wanted to express solitude and he drew the painting in homage to his wife. Hopper went to a pub, he liked it and he decided to draw a painting there.
6. Context. He drew other forty-three paintings of this style. Edward Hopper travelled a lot and therefore he painted a woman that was in a hurry and the woman represents Edward Hopper himself. The painting atmosphere is set in the middle of the century XX, and the woman seems to belong to the upper-middle class.
7. Judgement We think that it is a good artwork because it is a good painting but it isn’t amazing
Bibliographical references. Information - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automat_%28painting%29 (acessed 07/03/2014) - Automat, Edward Hopper http://automathopper.blogspot.com.es/ (acessed 07/03/2014) Images - Por la calle de Alcala http://porlacalledealcala.blogspot.com.es/2012/10/edward-hopper-museothyssen-bornemisza.html (acessed 07/03/2014)
Alex y Raul