About The Artist - Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 - May 15, 1967)
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Edward Hopper was an accomplished American painter (oil and watercolor) and printmaker in etching.
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About The Painting - Nighthawks |
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Nighthawks is the best known painting by American painter Edward
Hooper. The theme of the painting is simple, and it shows some customers sitting at an all-night dinner
counter. The most striking aspect of Nighthawks is the contrast between the harsh electric lights of
the diner and the dark, gentle night outside. This use of light and darkness adds a unique mood to
the painting and infuses a subtle emotion in the composition. |
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A highly well-known work of American art, Nighthawks was inspired
by a scene at a diner in Greenwich Village that was located in the artists' residential neighborhood in
Manhattan. Disturbed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hopper began painting Nighthawks and tried to
capture the dark clouds of gloom hanging over all of America. The empty urban street outside the diner
and the lack of communication between the three customers at the diner conveys the sense of depression
and gloom. Each of the customers is lost in his/her thoughts. The 3 customers - a couple and a man
sitting alone with his back to the viewer - are symbolic of a scared and disturbed American society. |
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The noses of the couple resemble beaks, perhaps of hawks and are
a reference to the title of the painting. The single attendant at the diner appears to be searching
for something in the window behind the couple as he looks up from his work. The attendant's age is
indiscernible. |
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The glass curved corner of the diner connects the large expanse
of glass on the sides, leaving us with a clear view of the happenings inside the diner. The weather
outside may be warm based on the garments worn by the subjects. The lighting effects in this painting
are remarkable; the light from the diner floods the street outside and casts a silvery shadow. |
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Edward Hopper always portrayed the emptiness and loneliness of
the modern urban life, and the fact that the man has his back to the viewer as compared to the
presence of the couple exhibit this sharply. In fact, Hopper had admitted that "unconsciously,
probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city." |
