So that I could properly understand the meaning and message of the painting I began researching different aspects of the painting, the first being who is the woman in the room?
Who is the woman?
After some quick research I was able to find out that the woman being depicted in the painting is the wife of Edward Hopper, Josephine Hopper. At the time that the image was painted his wife was in her late 60's at the age of 69, while the painting depicted a younger version of herself.
What is she feeling?
The painting displays a woman resting in a bed watching out of the window. The woman is displaying some self-soothing body language that implies that she has given up and is weak, her arms rest limp onto her legs and she is leaning subtly forwards towards the window. This posture suggests that she is either leaning forward due her tiredness and weakness or that she is leaning in towards the window as a sign of desperation and wishing that she was out there. Her eyes are black and empty producing an eerie and hollow look, the isolation has made her emotionally hollow like the dark pits where her eyes should be. She is facing the sun looking like she is lost in thought implying that she is stuck reflecting on herself. When looking out of her window we can see that she is elevated quite high above the ground level so that she is distanced from the rest of society and nature.
What is the use of light?
On the analysis on the website: artnet.com they describe the light to be "an abstract object itself". The light on the walls create a dynamic contrast where the light falls is generally what the focus of the painting is. For example in the painting 'Sun in an empty room' the light is highlighting the interior of an empty room, which symbolised the focus on Josephine's inner world. This was the same for the painting 'Morning sun' as the light falls upon her bland and empty walls, identifying her sense of isolation to be the focus.
Edward Hopper information:
Edward Hopper was an American painter as well as print maker born on the 22th of July 1882,and died on the 15th of May 1967. His main works made him known for oil and watercolour paintings and etching.
Edward Hopper would never enjoy explaining or answering questions about his artwork, he believed that the questions about his art would be explained within the piece of art itself so he would try to avoid explaining his works. He was known to be a quiet and introverted man who's philosophy stated that "no amount of skilful invention can replace the essential element of imagination" and that "the province of art is not react to it and not shun it".
Hopper was very interested in the Freud theory and the idea of the subconscious mind. This was made clear when reading a quote by him stating that "so much of ever art is an expression of the subconscious." This quote is from the book, Edward Hopper - 29th May 2004 edited by Sheena Wagstaff.
I tried to discover the motive and cause of the painting so that I could better understand its meaning, I researched into the time period to see what could have caused Edward Hopper to paint an image about isolation to find nothing. I instead began to research what was going on in Hopper's life specifically to make him paint about urban isolation and I found that during the 1940's he went through a period of not painting but desperately wishing he could due to the boredom of living an urban life and being limited to reading and going to the cinema in his free time.
Edward Hopper's art was greatly influenced by the art of Edgar Degas and picked up on his heavy use of straight and diagonal lines. This produced a strong contrast to the dancers that he generally painted. Hopper was greatly influenced by theirs use of bold and simple geometry and straight lines when it came to creating architectural designs for their paintings.
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