A brief slideshow that supplemented a presentation on my thesis: "Edward Hopper & the Cinema"

1. Edward Hopper & the Cinema

2. Critics describe his work as
“cinematic”
Night Shadows, 1928 Conference at Night, 1949

3. Questions
• What makes these stationary images reminiscent of film, a
medium of motion pictures?
• How does Hopper create or allude to narratives?
• How did the artist, inspired by the film industry, eventually
influence one of its most well known directors?
• Have these relationships altered cultural conventions and
reception?

4. Thesis Statement
“Due to his realistic portrayals of American life
with cinematic linear narratives, Edward Hopper
influenced the films of Alfred Hitchcock, who,
through direct formal and thematic references,
altered the critical and popular reception of
Hopper’s work.”

5. Hopper’s Personal Relationship to Cinema
When having difficulty
painting, Hopper said:
“I go to the movies for
a week or more. I go
on a regular movie
binge.”

6. Cinema as Subject Matter
New York Movie, 1939, Oil on canvas

7. Characterization
& Plot Development
Intermission, 1963
Oil on canvas

8. Preparatory Studies for Office at Night
1940
Storyboarding & Structuralism:
Hopper’s Narrative Construction

9. Storyboarding &
Structuralism:
Hitchcock’s Narrative
Construction
Dorothea Holt
Production Design Drawings for
Shadow of a Doubt
1943

10. Hopper’s Influence on Hitchcock:
Voyeurism & Rear Window
Night Windows, 1928,
Oil on canvas
Film Still (5:08), in Rear Window,
1954

11. Hopper’s Influence on Hitchcock:
Loneliness & Desolation in Pyscho
House by the Railroad, 1925, Oil on canvas Film Still (88:39), in Pyscho, 1960