Project 2: Painting analysis and Narrative

Automat (1927) is a painting by Edward Hopper which portrays a lone woman staring into a cup of coffee in an Automat late at night.

As is often the case in Hopper's paintings, both the woman's circumstances and her mood are ambiguous. She is well-dressed and is wearing makeup, which could indicate either that she is on her way to or from work at a job where personal appearance is important, or that she is on her way to or from a social occasion. She has removed only one glove, which may indicate either that she is distracted, that she is in a hurry and can stop only for a moment, or simply that she has just come in from outside, and has not yet warmed up.

The woman looks self-conscious and slightly afraid, unused to being alone in a public place. Something appears to have gone wrong. She unwittingly invites the viewer to imagine stories for her, stories of betrayal or loss. Automat for instance is a painting in which little appears to be happening. Hopper does not tell a story but paints a moment, a moment that includes loneliness, isolation, and a spell of the dark.

Moreover, contacting the background of the painting is during the period of Great depression in America. Therefore my Narrative is that:

In a peaceful villa, an worried women who faces big depression waits her husband's comfort.