Nighthawks

Nighthawks

Nighthawks, painting by Edward Hopper completed in 1942.

What is the inspiration behind the diner in Nighthawks?See all videos for this article

In Nighthawks, curved geometric forms accentuated by an Art Deco facade and angular light provide an almost theatrical setting for a group of insulated and isolated figures. The Phillies cigars advert on top of the diner shows this is not an upmarket location, since Phillies is a brand of American-made popular, cheap cigars commonly sold at convenience stores and gas stations. The “nighthawks” depicted in the painting are bathed in an oasis of fluorescent light in an all-night diner in an otherwise dark urban street: it’s a film noir, Chandler-esque setting. Hopper’s expressive use of artificial light playing upon the simplified shapes gives the painting its beauty. The Bogart-and-Bacall couple stare at the bar boy bending below the counter while their hands almost touch—a tableau that makes the solitary diner across the counter (whom Hopper modeled after himself), with his back to the viewer, look even more conspicuous.

Hopper claimed that the street itself wasn’t particularly lonely, but perhaps unconsciously he was conceptualizing the crushing loneliness of a large city. In any event, there is no visible diner’s entrance; the viewer is shut out from the scene, making it more intriguing. The diner itself was inspired by one in Greenwich Village, in New York City, where Hopper lived for 54 years. Hopper’s practice was to make sketches while he was out and about in New York and then return to his studio and sketch a combination of poses together with his wife, Josephine, whom he used as the model for the redheaded woman in this painting. Nighthawks has become one of the iconic American images of the 20th century.