Talk:The Bootleggers (Hopper)

Notes

• Architectural elements (windows, roof, chimneys)
  • Dormers, gables, mansard
  • Continuity of the mansard roof from painting to painting
  • Symbolism of the crucifix-form of the chimney. Appears nowhere else?
    • Hidden commentary on religious support for Prohibition (and Hopper's opposition to it)
• Composite
  • Unlike his Gloucester series (1923, 1924, 1926, 1928), The Bootleggers was not based on an actual scene but compiled from different ones
  • Composites were a feature of his later work, not his early work
• Prohibition
  • Hopper was against Prohibition
  • Hopper drank alcohol in small amounts, but his peers in his circle drank heavily
• Most "dramatic" painting out of his entire catalog
  • Film noir-like nature (cinematic influence?)
  • Why did Hopper hold on to it for 30 years?
• Criticism
  • Hopper continues to return to and reuse the same elements
    • House on the Hill (1920)
• Comparison
  • Edvard Munch