1958, Edward Hopper, Sunlight in a Cafeteria (detail) -- Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven)
From the museum label: From the time he was a young man, Edward Hopper was intrigued by people in urban restaurants, where strangers had little interaction. Sunlight in a Cafeteria captures an unsettling tension between the man and woman who are clearly aware of, but do not acknowledge, each other's presence. This edgy stillness suggests the closed lines of communication in much of modern urban life. As in so many of Hopper's paintings, the ambiguity in the scene opens up multiple narrative possibilities.
1958, Edward Hopper, Sunlight in a Cafeteria (detail) -- Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven)
From the museum label: From the time he was a young man, Edward Hopper was intrigued by people in urban restaurants, where strangers had little interaction. Sunlight in a Cafeteria captures an unsettling tension between the man and woman who are clearly aware of, but do not acknowledge, each other's presence. This edgy stillness suggests the closed lines of communication in much of modern urban life. As in so many of Hopper's paintings, the ambiguity in the scene opens up multiple narrative possibilities.