Rooms by the see by Edwuard Hopper, 1951

        The artwork I am going to analise is titled Rooms by the sea, by North American painter Edward Hopper. It is an oil on canvas which measures 73 cm by 1,02 mts. It was painted in 1951 and it is categorized as a surrealist piece althoug Hopper's most famous works are considered realist. The originality of the painting is firstly showed by its way of forcing us to "read it" in an unusual way. The mind porcesses a painting in a certain way. For instance, Westerners tend to focus first on the left-hand side of the painting and "read" from left to right. However, the open door and the entering ray of sun that lights up the scene force us to "read" the image from right to left. The psychology of art also sets that the mind enjoys figuring out what is happening in a vork of art and feels frustrated and threatened when it can't. The wall our attention is drawn to by the light impedes us from discovering what is in the room. We can only see a red sofa, a green carpet, a brown piece of furniture and the corner of a frame hang on its wall. The colours used by Hopper to depict this objects are complementary colours that contrast with the blue sea that threatens to enter in the room and flood it.

        As a mature artist, Hopper lived and worked in New York City and spent most of his summers on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He designed and built a sunny, secluded studio at Truro overlooking the ocean. This painting is based on the view out the back door of the studio. That notwithstanding, the view from the studio suggested the composition of Rooms by the Sea, the image is more an evocative metaphor of silence and solitude than the transcription of an actual scene. It can be compared to the oneirc scenes of Giorgio de Chirico, the most important influence on Magritte's work.

      This work is titled Mystery and Melancholy of a street, by Giorgio de Chirico. Painted in 1914, it is an oil on canvas which measures 85 by 69 cm. The piece is a modernist urban landscape that epithomizes the metaphysical painting of its author. As in the work of Hopper, the massive dark wall on the right side forces us to read the image in an unconventional direction that leads us to a little girl. She draws our look to the end of the yellow street where a mysterious shadow waits for her and for us. The use of colour is also interesting. We tend to prefer blues than dark browns and yellows and these are the colous that have the leading role in the scene along with the unnatural green sky.

      Both works are methaphores of solitude and isolation, feelings that are effectively depicted through non-figurative images or surrealistic compositions.