Nighthwaks Edward Hopper

Edward Hopper: Nighthawks

Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks is a 1942 oil on canvas painting by Edward Hopper that portrays four people in a downtown diner late at night as viewed through the diner’s large glass window. The light coming from the diner illuminates a darkened and deserted urban streetscape. The bartender may be a soda jerker, the three guests are night owls, giving the painting the title.

It has been described as Hopper’s best-known work and is one of the most recognizable paintings in American art. Within months of its completion, it was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago on May 13.