Edward Hopper Painting Western Motel in Elementary Series' Leviathan

Summary: The Edward Hopper painting Western Motel inspires Sherlock Holmes to solve a bank heist and an art theft in the Elementary series episode The Leviathan.

Western Motel (1957 oil on canvas) by American realist painter Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882-May 15, 1967); Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, south central Connecticut; Friday, Sep. 19, 2008: mr.gian, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

The Edward Hopper painting Western Motel assists Dec. 13, 2012, in activating associational thinking and mental acumen in The Leviathan, the first season's 10th episode in the Columbia Broadcasting System series Elementary.

Director Peter Werner and writers Corinne Brinkerhoff, Robert Doherty and Craig Sweeney brandish the green-bedecked 20th-century icon on their fictionalized Kent Philanthropic Foundation's waiting room wall. Joan Watson's (Lucy Liu) comment on financial capacities for collecting a Hopper original causes Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) to consider the opposite wall's $40 lithograph. The discordant decoration disguises Pietà, one of two depictions of the first of two known religious-themed portraits by Vincent van Gogh (March 30, 1853-July 2, 1890).

Western Motel fictitiously enriches Kent Philanthropic interiors whereas Pietà, extracted during Peter Kent's escapades as Le Chevalier ("The Cavalier"), ends back among fictitious Aster Museum exhibitions.

The Elementary series episode The Leviathan fictionalizes provenance chains (legal custodies) of the Edward Hopper painting Western Motel and of the Vincent van Gogh oil Pietà.

Hopper's (July 22, 1882-May 15, 1967) 30.625- by 50.5-inch (77.79- by 128.27-centimeter) painting gets 37.25- by 57.25- by 3-inch (94.62- by 145.42- by 7.62-centimeter) framed measurements. It harkens to Hopper portfolio year 1957 and, as collector Stephen Carlton Clark's (Aug. 29, 1882-Sep. 17, 1960) bequest, to Yale University Art Gallery number 1961.18.32. The gallery's online identification under American paintings and sculpture indicates that "an anonymous motel bedroom becomes a symbol of the mobility and rootlessness of modern life."

It judges that "spare furnishings, stark interior, and sharp bands of light produce a composition of masterful simplicity, yet one that is layered with psychological ambiguity."

The Edward Hopper painting Western Motel keeps us from knowing why a blonde-haired, red-dressed, red-shoed woman "sitting across the room does not seem to see us."

Something solid blue lies loosely on the armchair even though "the pensiveness of her stare and her tense posture accentuate the sense of some impending event." Mysterious material that matches nothing inside the green-floored, green-walled, modern, red-furnished motel room and everything outside in the clear sky maybe masks messy sneezes or spills. It negates that "the luggage is packed, the room is devoid of personal objects, the bed is made, and a car is parked outside the window."

Perhaps The Leviathan episode writers offer the Edward Hopper painting Western Motel as an opportunity for Holmes and Watson to observe a crime about to occur.

Perhaps The Leviathan episode puts the Edward Hopper painting Western Motel in Holmes's and Watson's paths because of the parallels that they pose with the painter.

Hopper quit the family home in Nyack, New York, for residences fall through spring in Manhattan, New York, and spring through fall on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He resided for about six months of every year in South Truro and the other half-year at 3 Washington Square North in a brownstone building-filled neighborhood. He shared his life and work with wife Josephine Verstille Nivison (March 18, 1883-March 6, 1968), companion and muse somewhat similar, somewhat not, to Sherlock's Joan.

The Edward Hopper painting Western Motel turns up in The Leviathan episode perhaps as testimony to an impending crime, perhaps as tribute to brownstone-loving New Yorkers.

The base of operations for deducing by Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) is a historic New York brownstone owned by Sherlock's father; Holmes and Watson refer to their home/work base as "the brownstone": Elementary @ElementaryCBS, via Facebook May 16, 2012

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internets.

Image credits:

American realist painter Edward Hopper's Western Motel (1957 oil on canvas) fictitiously hangs in retired art thief Le Chevalier's philanthropic foundation in Elementary tv series' Leviathan (season 1 episode 10); in real life, Western Motel is on view in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, south central Connecticut; Friday, Sep. 19, 2008: mr.gian, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrgian/6909808439/

The base of operations for deducing by Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) and Joan Watson (Lucy Liu) is a historic New York brownstone owned by Sherlock's father; Holmes and Watson refer to their home/work base as "the brownstone": Elementary @ElementaryCBS, via Facebook May 16, 2012, @ https://www.facebook.com/ElementaryCBS/photos/a.151627898295663.14686.151013691690417/151627901628996/

For further information:

"Artist: Edward Hopper, American, 1882-1967." Yale University Art Gallery > Collections > American Paintings and Sculpture.
Available @ https://artgallery.yale.edu/collections/objects/52875

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London England: George Newnes Ltd., 1892.
Available via Project Gutenberg @ http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1661/1661-h/1661-h.htm

Elementary: The First Season. Los Angeles CA: Paramount Pictures Corporation, Friday, Dec. 13, 2012.

Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: A Catalogue Raisonne. New York NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006.

Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: An Intimate Biography. New York NY: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 2007.

Levin, Gail. Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist. New York NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1999.

Marriner, Derdriu. 29 September 2012. "Are Lesser Clovers Sherlock's Lucky Shamrocks on Elementary's Pilot?" Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2012/09/are-lesser-clovers-sherlocks-lucky.html