Soir Bleu - Hopper Edward

Soir Bleu is an oil on canvas painted in 1914 by the artist Edward Hopper and kept in New York at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Soir Bleu is one of Hopper's paintings where he is most influenced by the Parisian painters during his stay in Europe. This aspect is visible both in the characters represented and in their pictorial transposition where the impressionist brushstrokes mixes with the nascent style of Hopper. The picture was not understood by the critics during the public exhibition that classified it as a fantastic production without expressive force, on the other hand, with a brief vision, the painting shows an ambiguous environment: first of all the place could be the terrace of a cafe where in the background a blue wavy line could suggest the boundary between the sky and the landscape below; or the scene could take place inside a room with a decorated background. The figures: on the left sitting at the table, a protector, next to him sitting on the same table a man with a hat and a cigarette, a soldier seen from behind, and a clown with a viscously made-up face. In the background just above the soldier is a heavily made-up woman who is probably a prostitute looking at a possible client. On the left, another table with a tall, well-dressed middle-class couple watches the scene. Apparently Soper Bleu by Hopper seems almost a trivial picture, but like many other paintings by the American artist, nothing in the representation is left to chance. The figures are inserted in a series of relationships: the protector, the man with the beard and the hat, the clown all have the cigarette off in their mouths. The cigarette becomes the symbol of a belonging to a social class or the Parisian bohème where the art world often met that of crime. In the same bar are also figures of good society precisely those represented on the right. Another relationship is between the soldier sitting on his back with his face in the direction of the prostitute. The clown is nothing more than the self-portrait of Hopper that represents the position of the artist in society. The print on canvas of Edward Hopper's Soir Blue painting proposed by Shopart is in very high resolution and is printed with eight colors using giclée technology. In addition, to make the print on canvas similar to an oil painting, Shopart recommends spreading the paint with brushstrokes effect that offers relief brush strokes visible both to the eye and to the touch. The framed canvas prints can be finished with a colored border chosen by the customer. This edge allows the elegant insertion in our home environment. It is possible to have the Hopper Soir Blue picture also in the version on mdf wood panel with a thickness of 2 cm and in the simplest poster version.

A. Cilia