Summer Interior

Edward Hopper painted Summer Interior in 1909 and is amongst his popular works that depict women in isolation. The painting shows a woman sat on her bedroom floor, on top of a sheet that has been pulled from the bed.

She is looking at the floor so that her face cannot be seen. Her hair is pulled back into a neat bun, and she is naked from the waist down. On the floor, by her foot there appears to be a strip of sunlight in the shape of the bedroom window.

This painting once again shows Hopper's need to represent independent women in his paintings, and how they fit into the modern world. The woman in the painting is naked from the waist down, she is vulnerable and is very much confined to the bedroom.

The way in which he has posed the woman in the I age makes us look down at the painting, following her gaze downwards. She looks despondent and almost as if she has given up on life.

She is the true focus of the painting and the observer is left wondering why she is sat alone on the bedroom floor? She is appears as if she is resting, but this is juxtaposed with the unmade bed and the growing feeling of unease that surrounds the image. We are a voyeur into this quietly chaotic world.

Although the painting is titled, Summer Interior, the only light that is visible in the room is the small patch of light on the floor that has streamed in through the bedroom window.

Without this shaft of light the painting would be only in dark colours. However, even this patch of light seems to be somewhat subdued, with the visible criss-cross pattern painting technique that Hopper used.