New York Movie
Edward Hopper, 1939
Image not available: work still under copyright
New York Movie shows an almost empty cinema auditorium, with a few scattered spectators and an usherette in a dark blue uniform leaning against the wall, one hand at her chin and a torch in the other. The painting stands out for its combination of light sources: the screen, the ceiling lamps beneath the balconies, the staircase and a wall sconce on the right that lights the woman. Hopper built the scene from several New York movie theaters he knew well, after making more than fifty preparatory sketches. Josephine Hopper, his wife and a painter herself, posed for the figure. Rather than a scene of entertainment, the picture focuses on solitude and introspection, even in a place designed for crowds. It has been compared with Manet's Bar at the Folies Bergère, and the film projected may be Lost Horizon, though this remains uncertain. The work is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and has inspired poems and film references.
- Painter
- Edward Hopper
- Date
- 1939
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Museum
- Museum of Modern Art, New York City
- Depicts
- projection screen, stairs, audience, usher, guard rail, movie theater, column, curtain