Edward Hopper & the Cinema

Critics describe his work as “cinematic”

Night Shadows, 1928 Conference at Night, 1949

Questions

• What makes these stationary images reminiscent of film, a medium of motion pictures?

• How does Hopper create or allude to narratives?

• How did the artist, inspired by the film industry, eventually influence one of its most well known directors?

• Have these relationships altered cultural conventions and reception?

Thesis Statement

“Due to his realistic portrayals of American life

with cinematic linear narratives, Edward Hopper

influenced the films of Alfred Hitchcock, who,

through direct formal and thematic references,

altered the critical and popular reception of

Hopper’s work.”

Hopper’s Personal Relationship to Cinema

When having difficulty

painting, Hopper said:

“I go to the movies for

a week or more. I go

on a regular movie

binge.”

Cinema as Subject Matter

New York Movie, 1939, Oil on canvas

Characterization & Plot Development

Intermission, 1963

Oil on canvas

Preparatory Studies for Office at Night 1940

Storyboarding & Structuralism: Hopper’s Narrative Construction

Storyboarding & Structuralism: Hitchcock’s Narrative Construction

Dorothea Holt Production Design Drawings for Shadow of a Doubt 1943

Hopper’s Influence on Hitchcock: Voyeurism & Rear Window

Night Windows, 1928, Oil on canvas

Film Still (5:08), in Rear Window, 1954

Hopper’s Influence on Hitchcock: Loneliness & Desolation in Pyscho

House by the Railroad, 1925, Oil on canvas Film Still (88:39), in Pyscho, 1960