Automat

This painting was displayed for the first time on Valentines Day in 1927.  True to Edward Hopper's style, the painting has a melancholy and loneliness that comes through.

'He was an American painter and portrayed everyday citizens in their natural habitat, which is why Hopper is revered as one of the most important stateside artists of the 20^th century.  But behind that quaint slice of American apple pie life, something darker lurks: isolation, voyeurism, the silent sound of lonely hearts left spent and wanting.'

'Automat is one of Hopper’s most iconic pieces, and understandably so. The 1920’s fashion the subject is dressed in, the way her eyes are cast down demure towards her coffee cup, the smooth skin of her legs pressed together beneath the table. It is the epitome of style, and holds much aesthetical appeal. But Automat is also a portrait of an immense isolation.' 

Isolation and loneliness is often a theme in his paintings, yet he manages to convey these themes so subtly, that it is often difficult to pinpoint exactly how he does it.  He creates these feelings, or perhaps causes the viewers of his paintings to call these emotions up, by his specific composition and choice of subjects and objects.

'A six-word short story exists that is commonly attributed to Ernest Hemingway. This “story”, in the form of a classified newspaper advertisement, is extremely visceral, and possesses a poignancy that many novels fail to achieve in hundreds of pages of prose. It goes as follows: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Nothing directly tragic is contained in its words, they merely state that an item of clothing is for sale. Its profound power lies in what is implied, what the reader’s imagination runs rampant with, what is implicitly understood. Edward Hopper’s genius is of similar ilk. His pieces often spark the same small fire of the mind, and if the viewer gives the flames just a little time to spread, they can grow into a raging inferno.'

This 40 x 50cm version of his masterpiece is fairly challenging and has 29 colours.  Each box contains a stretched, printed and numbered canvas, paint, brushes and a page detailing the numbers for an extra reference.

https://www.edwardhopper.net/automat.jsp

https://www.mutualart.com/Article/An-American-Solitude--Short-Stories-by-E