Nighthawks - Card

6" x 6" / 15 x 15 cm

Edward Hopper’s most famous work, Nighthawks remains not only one of the most recognizable, but also relatable paintings in 20th-century American art. It has long been positioned as the iconic painting of loneliness and alienation.

The painting depicts an all-night diner in which three customers have converged, all strangers to one another. Hopper used his wife, Jo, as the model for the redheaded woman, and himself as the model for the man with his back to the viewer.

With no door to enter the diner, the viewer is left outside to witness the melancholy and isolation of three strangers unable to connect.  Hopper said of this painting: “Unconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.”

Edward Hopper is widely acknowledged as the most important realist painter of twentieth-century America. His depiction of American life, represented by evocative imagery, explores aloneness as proof of belonging. With subjects ranging from diners, hotel lobbies, offices, and theaters in New York City to country houses, churches, seascapes, and main streets of rural New England, Hopper’s work cleverly uses light with cinematic effect, never quite telling the full story.