Painting, melancholy and the sublime

This dissertation will investigate the thematic and stylistic relationships between three of the most important representational and realist painters of the last hundred years, namely Edward Hopper, Peter Doig and Eric Fischl, the cultural and psychological affinities that these three artists share and the continuous intergenerational and engaged dialogue that has influenced and informed the other in generating a certain emotional or psychological outcome in their work, most notably that of a melancholic sensibility or atmosphere. Painting has historically endeavored to tackle many enduring and illusive artistic issues, particularly regarding how to capture or properly represent the complex and difficult relationships between such ethereal components as movement and light, time and space, fantasy and reality, the portrayal of nature and ultimately how to best present or frame these concerns. This dissertation will also examine the inherent commonalities and properties the paintings of these artists share in addressing these various and divergent elements and in doing so, how they subsequently arrive at and achieve their pervasive mood or ambiance. It will also demonstrate that all three are artists that draw from a common intertextual pool of cultural, psychological and emotional references in representing and realizing, either consciously or subconsciously, a particular mood or atmosphere.