Rebecca West
Edward Hopper’s New York Movie 1939
Pierre Bonnard’s Dining Room Overlooking the Garden (The Breakfast Room), 1931
New York Movie is a painting depicting an usherette looking as if pondering something. She is dressed in a blue pantsuit and has shoulder length blonde hair with bangs to her eyebrows. The focus is obviously on her, although she is to the far right of the painting. There is a light next to her on the wall, casting light towards the floor and towards the ceiling. To the left, separated from the usherette by a thick wall, are red theatre seats. A man is clearly sitting near the middle right of the theatre and there is a movie playing on the screen.
The Breakfast Room shows a dining table covered in a white cloth, covering about one third of the canvas. The viewer cannot see the entire table. A tea pot, some cups and saucers, and some plates holding food are on this table. Above is a window held in wooden panels. Outside is a banister and beyond that are green trees. There is a path leading between these trees. to the left of the window there appears to be a doll with blonde hair. Behind her is purple and black wallpaper.
The styles of these paintings are very different. New York Movie has, for the most part, clean lines and demonstrates a clear scene. It’s realistic and uses realistic colours and shading. The Breakfast Room, on the other hand, has very unclear lines. It’s hard to tell what is exactly on the table, What the wallpaper is, and where the path leads. The colours are over saturated and almost all of them have a yellow undertone. This painting is very bright, whereas the other painting has mostly dull colours brightened only by a light. The Breakfast Room also has a very different point of view. Here the viewer feels a part of the painting, as if we are sitting at the table. We are experiencing it first hand and looking out through our own dining room window. In Hopper’s painting, we are an outsider looking in; it is in third person and we do not partake in the scene. We feel almost like we are invading the usherette’s privacy and that we see something she doesn’t want anyone to see. Bonnard makes the middle of the painting the focus. The nature outside is what the viewer is supposed to be looking at, while in Hopper’s he is supposed to be looking to the right.
