Night Windows 1928 & Silbers Pharmacy
Night Windows 1928
after Edward Hopper
could as easily be titled Rear Window. One
of Hopper’s favorite films. The painting
shows a woman in the middle bay window
of a second story building. Wearing a rosy slip,
she is bending over something unseen.
Her backside is all that’s visible, all
we see of her standing on a green rug
across from a bed. A radiator’s against
the far wall and a red chest. Is she
searching one of the drawers? We don’t know
and don’t care. It’s her body that centers
the painting, that those who look
from the outside into brightly lit places want
to see, those drawn to a woman
alone in a drab room that only Hopper
and the viewer would enter.
SILBERS PHARMACY
after Edward Hopper’s Drug Store, 1927
The lettering over the corner store
in bold script, gold on black, above
a brightly lit window with another sign,
white on black, Prescriptions Drugs. And
below that, EX – LAX. Edward having his fun.
Still the shop’s showcase is dressed in blue
draperies and hanging lamps of green and red,
glowing over jars and gift sets wrapped
in matching colors. Such lovely items under
the threat of ruinous bodily functions. Except
there are no bodies. No shoppers, no one
passing by, the area dark but for this corner
where soft store lights illuminate the sidewalk
and street. A perfect place for Hopper to window
shop, then move on, never to enter, never
to seek out Silber or his ghostly, gassy patrons.