High Noon
Edward Hopper, 1949
Image not available: work still under copyright
Edward Hopper's High Noon, painted in 1949, is an oil painting by the American Realist. It shows a woman standing in the doorway of a house, gazing outward as if waiting for someone or something. At first sight the scene seems straightforward, yet the picture works on both a psychological and an aesthetic level. Hopper treats the figure as a study of light and shadow: the shadows falling across her body echo the geometric shadows cast on the house. The white walls clash with the blue sky and the red chimney and base of the building, and the sunlight isolates the woman as though a spotlight were trained on her, producing a sense of detachment. Her dressing gown hangs open, leaving her almost entirely exposed, and its vertical lines, along with the doorframe, the door and the gap in the upper window curtains, line up with one another and tie the composition together.
- Painter
- Edward Hopper
- Date
- 1949
- Dimensions
- 28 × 40 cm
- Museum
- Dayton Art Institute, Dayton