Night Windows

Night Windows displays Hopper's mastery of light

Hopper attended the New York School of Art at the turn of the twentieth century and his professor Robert Henri taught him: "Low art is just telling things; as, There is the night. High art gives the feel of the night.

This delight at the power of light and its depiction of night is the main theme in Hopper's 1928 painting Night Windows.

We catch a glimpse into a city apartment as Hopper focuses on the stark difference between the almost overpoweringly colorful inside to the industrial blue, grey and blacks of the city waiting to swallow its dwellers up just beyond the light.

As with Hopper's most famous painting, Nighthawks, the anonymous woman depicted in the painting is unaware of the viewers voyeuristic gaze.

Hopper often explored the contradictions of the modern American city, where one can dwell in lonely isolation mere feet from thousands of inhabitants living out a similar existence. This theme can also be seen in his other works Automat and New York Office.

Born in 1882 Edward Hopper is regarded as one of the greatest American painters of all time. He is revered for his work in realism and capturing the isolation and loneliness that quite often went hand in hand with pursuing the American dream. Switching between lonely small towns and stiflingly solitary cities his work is still renowned and easily recognizable today.

Edward Hopper was a master of light and was well known for his deep admiration of Claude Monet, the founder of the French Impressionist movement, famed for his series of sun dabbled water lily ponds. The latter is nearer reality although the former is a copy.