Analyzing Edward Hopper's 'Automat'

Edward Hopper was a Realist painter born in 1882 who had a great influence on art in the mid-20th century. Hopper painted contemporary images of American life through a variety of mediums, notably oil and water colors, to illustrate the growing detachment between the American people from each other. The first image is “Automat,” painted in 1927 with oil paints measuring 28” x 36”. With “Automat,” the audience gets initial feelings of loneliness and empathy for the woman, wondering why she is sitting alone at night drinking coffee at the diner. Hopper then painted Nighthawks in 1942 with oil paints, which measures 31” x 60”. Looking into a late-night diner, this painting initially gives off a quaint impression of the American nightlife from the 1940’s. Finally, the last image is “New York Office.” The piece was completed in 1962 towards the end of Hopper’s career and measures 40.5” x 55.125”. The painting shows a woman standing by the window of a street-corner restaurant. Like Hopper’s other paintings, this one is left open for the audience to interpret. This painting also gives off initial feelings of wonder and loneliness. His works do not imply any degree of activity, only setting the scene of a typical American day. As a realist painter, Hopper painted the world around him as he perceived it.

His paintings often portray a single person or group of people alone in a quiet city. In a time of war and conflict, Hopper used straightforward images of life to symbolize feelings of loneliness and detachment from the world that war caused. This is why his pieces give off somber tones and evoke feelings of sympathetic loneliness. Hopper’s artwork carries much more personal emotion unlike the objectivity of other Realist artists. His unconventional approach to Realism innovated the movement as a whole, setting the path for the Abstract Expressionism Movement that came after his