I do not know what art means but I know what it is. Edward Hopper is in Paris between 1906 and 1910 and he is lonely because he is always lonely and will always be lonely. He is the figurative painter, an idea then slipping from fashion, but his paintings capture desolation so complete it will take decades, until the summer of 1045, to replicate what he sees in his mind. The young woman has dark hair and sits on the floor with a white sheet under her, one half pulled from the bed. Her chemise is awry, black hair blooms between her legs, and one foot basks in a shaft of yellow light penetrating her lonely chamber. Her lover has left, or more likely never come. She is warm and the world is cold, and so slowly, ever so slowly, she will become chilled and become one with the world.
-- from Charles Bowden's "Contested Ground" (p. 13 in the recent Harpers magazine.) --
Question: What is your impression?
Has the lover left the scene, or never arrived?
Or thirdly, there never was any lover in the first place?
Have a great Monday.
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Every time I choose a scenario, something else I see in the painting makes me change my mind.
ReplyDeleteShe has no lover. She is utterly alone.
ReplyDeleteThe lover has recently left. Although, he doesn't actually love her, And she knows it. The sad thing is she doesn't love him either.
ReplyDeleteIsabella's take on it is heart-breaking. Yes, I agree that this would make the woman the sadest of all these options.
ReplyDeleteC.