Edward Hopper: "Cape Cod Morning"

I listened to all of the podcasts and I decieded to respond to the one about "Cape Cod Morning", by Edward Hopper. Most of his past paintings were considered to show isolationism and lonliness, and many people seem to think that "Cape Cod Morning" also depicts lonliness. May Geolot believes that this painting does not symbolize any dark emotions, but that it symbolizes eagerness and determination. She seems to think that just because his past paintings were very dark and dreary that this painting would be no different. The way that he paints shows the things that he trys to portray and the way that he portrays these things can vary in mediums. Edward Hopper painted his pictures to show whatever emotions that he wanted to show people. She speaks of how the woman is painted and of the emotions that reflect off of her. She causes the inference that the emotion of the painting is shown from the emotion of the woman and what it seems that she wants as opposed to the emotion of the painting being derived from other scenery. She speaks of how instead of being sad and lonly that this woman is eager to get out and experience the world and live the day. She makes the inference that the woman is trying to see the beautiful landscape from her window.




I believe that this painting shows the same thing that May Geolot thinks that it shows. As a technique, I interpret individual objects rather than trying to assume what they are about by looking at objects that are related to them. As stated above, many people assume that this painting is about lonliness just because of the other paintings that Edward Hopper has created. I don't think this that this painting represents lonliness because, as May Geolot thinks also, the woman in the picture looks more eager instead of sad. I believe that the reasoning behind the fact that many people see this painting as depressing relates to his past paintings. I think that if people had not seen his previous paintings then maybe their ideas about "Cape Cod Morning" would be different. I had not seen his previous paintings until I researched him after listening to the podcast by May Geollot. Looking at his other paintings, it is apparant to me that he does have a habit of creating paintings that represent lonliness and depression. Because many of his past paintings were of this nature, viewers tend to think that his newer paintings will reference back to his older paintings.

Here, you see two of Edward Hopper's previous paintings.

Here, you see the difference between his previous paintings and "Cape Cod Morning."