Analysis of selected painting

The painting I have selected "Chop Suey" was painted in 1929 by Edward Hopper, a prominent American realist painter and print maker of the 19th Century.

The painting portrays two women in conversation at a cafe. The painting demonstrates different light qualities very boldly and what makes it even more interesting is that according to some scholars, the female subject is facing her doppelganger. Some scholars also feel that Hopper and the women in his paintings are mostly lonely, but less lonely with each other. They seem to be in the winters of their soul, so empty and ready to be filled. Some suggest that it maybe because of the light variation he uses that gives this feeling of emptiness and harsh reality.

Here in the picture, the stark white table with just a tea pot and no cups between the women can be interpreted as a beginning or ending or both.

In the background a solitary man in blue seems to be ready to pay his bills below the window of crossing blues and then if you look carefully you notice that the man is not alone but with a woman in a dot with a red cap.

I reason I chose this painting was because of the variation of light that i feel expresses the complexities of life and the main subject whose expression suggests that she is lost in thought and seems to be conversing with her subconsciousness.

References : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hopper
http://theheretik.typepad.com/the_heretik/2005/05/the_heretik_app.html