Not Your Average Female Portrait
Ways in which you wouldn't normally view a woman
Curated by Lily Johnston

Edward Hopper, Hotel Room, 1931

Honestly disturbing, Edward Hopper's Hotel Room, leaves the viewer in remorse for a women's hotel room full of shame. What would usually be thought of as a happy arrival at the St. Regis, seems more Motel 8 after a rough night on the streets. Head down, hands on knees, note in hand, our protagonist or maybe even anti-hero, reads a note perplexed at how a lover left her with nothing but the one piece of clothing she wears on her back.

The olives, oranges and auburns paint the room sullen like a sour cocktail party.  The horizontals push back and draw towards the black window shade, but the white walls push up in eerie light that reminisces of some hope. Her hat sits untouched, just waiting to be worn to the nearby flapper joint. But we see the sad woman behind doors, hiding from her average life. A normal painting would show her out and about or in this room in a different set of company, instead of reading the note that changed her life, most probably for the worse.

Everything that matters hides in the shade; her face, her legs (for dancing), her torso and the sofa (for relaxing). The only parts of the room lit mirror her normal sad life; her thighs (self-explanatory) and her forearms (holding the note). Leading a seemingly sad life, this woman hides in the confounds of her hotel room, shielding her emotions from the public. Hopper obviously has a point. Not all happy people are indeed happy.