Colour 14

Edward Hopper


Edward Hopper is an american fineartist who deals with the subject of isolation. What's particularly interesting is that his use of colour doesn't usually portray this.

You see in these images that the colours we see are very vibrant. The first image deals mostly with primary colours such as red and tints of blues. Before i mentioned that red is often used as a colour to symbolise danger and you can see it used in alot of action sequences in films and games. However it is not seen in that way in this image. The second image has alot more broken colours and deals with some more shades.

This piece is quite interesting. You can see a clear division of light and dark in this image and in turn, a separation between broken colours and purer hues. On the left you can see a film is being played and you get the impression that there's a lot of people there. When you start to move to the right image, you can see a woman standing on the side by herself.

What's interesting is that we often associate isolation with darkness. However this has been turned on it's head in this painting as we see the area which is more saturated is the area where the woman feels isolated. We even see pure hues of the primary colours in these areas, the red curtains, yellow walls and blue dress. However when you look to the left, you see alot more broken reds and oranges, even though that's where alot of people are. I found this an interesting way to narrate the painting by turning what we know upside down.