Sheridan Theatre

For Hopper, the choice of a movie theatre as a subject, and the Sheridan Theatre in particular, was a personal one. Located in New York City's Greenwich Village, just blocks from Hopper's studio apartment, The Sheridan (as it was known) epitomized the luxurious movie palace of the early twentieth century, a phenomenon that rose to satisfy the 85 million Americans who attended movies weekly in the 1930s. An avid moviegoer, Hopper is reported to have declared: ‘When I don't feel in the mood for painting, I go to the movies for a week or more. I go on a regular movie binge!’ The dramatic architecture and solitary figures that inhabit The Sheridan Theatre are themes that fascinated Hopper from the beginning of his career. Although the isolated figures in The Sheridan Theatre have been described as lonely and alienated, Hopper himself thought such an interpretation was ‘overdone’. Rather, he seemed to find the shadowy darkness of a movie theatre a revitalizing reprieve from the social demands of life in the crowded metropolis.