Soir Bleu

COLLECTION NAME:

The AMICA Library

mediaCollectionId

AMICO~1~1

The AMICA Library

Collection

true

AMICA ID:

WMAA.70.1208

amicoid

WMAA.70.1208

AMICA ID

false

AMICA Library Year:

1999

aly

1999

AMICA Library Year

false

Object Type:

Paintings

oty

Paintings

Object Type

false

Creator Name:

Hopper, Edward

crn

Hopper, Edward

Creator Name

false

Creator Nationality:

North American; American

crc

North American; American

Creator Nationality

false

Creator Dates/Places:

1882-1967

cdt

1882-1967

Creator Dates/Places

false

Creator Birth Place:

Nyack, New York, United States

cbp

Nyack, New York, United States

Creator Birth Place

false

Creator Death Place:

New York, New York, United States

cdp

New York, New York, United States

Creator Death Place

false

Creator Name-CRT:

Edward Hopper

crt

Edward Hopper

Creator Name-CRT

false

Title:

Soir Bleu

otn

Soir Bleu

Title

false

View:

Scanned from a 4x5 transparency, by Charl Marmorstein

rid

Scanned from a 4x5 transparency, by Charl Marmorstein

View

false

Creation Date:

(1914)

oct

(1914)

Creation Date

false

Creation Start Date:

1914

ocs

1914

Creation Start Date

false

Creation End Date:

1914

oce

1914

Creation End Date

false

Materials and Techniques:

Oil on canvas

omd

Oil on canvas

Materials and Techniques

false

Dimensions:

Whole - 36 x 72 in. (91.4 x 182.9 cm.)

met

Whole - 36 x 72 in. (91.4 x 182.9 cm.)

Dimensions

false

AMICA Contributor:

Whitney Museum of American Art

oon

Whitney Museum of American Art

AMICA Contributor

false

Owner Location:

New York, New York, USA

oop

New York, New York, USA

Owner Location

false

ID Number:

70.1208

ooa

70.1208

ID Number

false

Credit Line:

Josephine N. Hopper Bequest

ooc

Josephine N. Hopper Bequest

Credit Line

false

Rights:

http://www.whitney.org/information/rights.shtml

orl

<a href="http://www.whitney.org/information/rights.shtml"target="_new">http://www.whitney.org/information/rights.shtml</a>

Rights

false

Context:

Soir Bleu is a vivid and monumental work painted in 1914, almost four years after Hopper's last sojourn in Paris. Its grand scale is an indication of how strong an impression Parisian life had made on the young Hopper. At home in his New York studio, he created this melancholy allegory from reminiscences partly literary, partly art historical, and certainly personal. The artificiality of Soir Bleu is inevitable and intentional. Hopper, as dramatist, has assembled a cast of characters and traditional types that play out timeless roles of courtship, solicitation, and tragic self-isolation. One of these characters is described in a preliminary drawing with a note, the shadowy isolated figure of the procurer seated alone at left. Hopper has also included a classically attired clown in white, a military officer in formal uniform, a bearded intellectual in a beret, perhaps an artist, and a well-dressed bourgeois couple. Standing beyond the balustrade, as though presiding over this mixed company, is a haughty beauty in gaudy maquillage, her painted face demanding attention in the brilliant glow of oriental lanterns in the cool blue night. In Soir Bleu, we witness Hopper's early attempt to create, rather than merely record, a sophisticated, anti-sentimental allegory of adult city life. Back in America many years later, he would stage the masterpiece Nighthawks (1942) with all the worldly reality he sought in Soir Bleu but was too young to make emotionally convincing. However, this major early painting gives a clear indication of Hopper's enormous ambition for his art.

cxd

Soir Bleu is a vivid and monumental work painted in 1914, almost four years after Hopper's last sojourn in Paris. Its grand scale is an indication of how strong an impression Parisian life had made on the young Hopper. At home in his New York studio, he created this melancholy allegory from reminiscences partly literary, partly art historical, and certainly personal. The artificiality of Soir Bleu is inevitable and intentional. Hopper, as dramatist, has assembled a cast of characters and traditional types that play out timeless roles of courtship, solicitation, and tragic self-isolation. One of these characters is described in a preliminary drawing with a note, the shadowy isolated figure of the procurer seated alone at left. Hopper has also included a classically attired clown in white, a military officer in formal uniform, a bearded intellectual in a beret, perhaps an artist, and a well-dressed bourgeois couple. Standing beyond the balustrade, as though presiding over this mixed company, is a haughty beauty in gaudy maquillage, her painted face demanding attention in the brilliant glow of oriental lanterns in the cool blue night. In Soir Bleu, we witness Hopper's early attempt to create, rather than merely record, a sophisticated, anti-sentimental allegory of adult city life. Back in America many years later, he would stage the masterpiece Nighthawks (1942) with all the worldly reality he sought in Soir Bleu but was too young to make emotionally convincing. However, this major early painting gives a clear indication of Hopper's enormous ambition for his art.

Context

false

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Soir Bleu