The Hotel Window

Of Hotel Window Edward Hopper himself wrote:"Its nothing accurate at all, just an improvisation of things I've seen. It's no particular hotel lobby, but many times I've walked through the Thirties from Broadway to Fifth Avenue and there are a lot of cheesy hotels there. That probably suggested it. Lonely? Yes, I guess it's lonelier than I planned it really." Hotel Window is a classic example of Hopper's evocative exploration of the theme of isolation in American urban life in the 20th Century. Depicting an elegantly dressed older woman seated on a navy couch in an anonymous hotel lobby staring absently out of a darkened window, the large-scale (40 by 55 in.) canvas expresses the loneliness and alienation that defined not only a certain aspect of American experience, but also, in the artist's phrase, the whole human condition.