{"data":{"id":111628,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/111628","is_boosted":true,"title":"Nighthawks","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhCQAFAPUAABggIBwlJRwoKB0oKR0uNRwuOSAmJCooIy8qIy4uJiYrKScvLi0uKDguJTsvJS0wJyM1LzkxJjA0LSQzMC42MSs1NSg7N0MzJkA4K0A+NTFAOzJDPDFCPkFEPytEQzxNSENRSkdWSklcTk1dUVZkVVRqW3aRenmUfKufaH+bgba3h7y8iMG9hwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAJAAUAAAYqwMbFgUg8JIuKgkGxcD6kFSsA0HgIhY4KBRqFIIZDJIM5pUwl0WYiGAQBADs=","width":10817,"height":5912,"alt_text":"Scene in a diner, viewed through wrap-around glass windows, at night on an empty urban street. A light-skinned man and woman, he in a suit and she in a red dress, sit together at a triangular wood bar, eyes downcast. At left sits another man, his back to the viewer. Behind the counter is a light-skinned man in a white uniform. The interior lights cast a yellow glow that spills onto the street in pale green. Above the diner a sign reads, \"Phillies.\""},"main_reference_number":"1942.51","has_not_been_viewed_much":false,"boost_rank":52,"date_start":1942,"date_end":1942,"date_display":"1942","date_qualifier_title":"Made","date_qualifier_id":4,"artist_display":"Edward Hopper (American, 1882\u20131967)","place_of_origin":"United States","description":"

About Nighthawks<\/em> Edward Hopper recollected, \u201cunconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.\u201d In an all-night diner, three customers sit at the counter opposite a server, each appear to be lost in thought and disengaged from one another. The composition is tightly organized and spare in details: there is no entrance to the establishment, no debris on the streets. Through harmonious geometric forms and the glow of the diner\u2019s electric lighting, Hopper created a serene, beautiful, yet enigmatic scene. Although inspired by a restaurant Hopper had seen on Greenwich Avenue in New York, the painting is not a realistic transcription of an actual place. As viewers, we are left to wonder about the figures, their relationships, and this imagined world.<\/p>\n","short_description":"One of the best-known images of 20th-century art, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks<\/em> depicts an all-night diner where three customers, all lost in their own thoughts, have congregated. It\u2019s unclear how or why the anonymous and uncommunicative night owls are there. While Hopper mostly avoided commenting on his intent for the work, he did share, \u201cunconsciously, probably, I was painting the loneliness of a large city.\u201d","dimensions":"84.1 \u00d7 152.4 cm (33 1\/8 \u00d7 60 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":152,"height":84,"diameter":null,"clarification":null}],"medium_display":"Oil on canvas","inscriptions":"Signed recto, bottom-right, on wall, in green paint: \"EDWARD HOPPER\".","credit_line":"Friends of American Art Collection","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":"Gail Levin, \u201cEdward Hopper\u2019s Nighthawks, Surrealism, and the War,\u201d Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies<\/em> 22, 2 (1996), 180\u201395, fig. 1.\n\nJames N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth\u2013Century Painting and Sculpture<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 85 (ill.).\n\nJudith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), no. 133.\n\nNina Baym et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of American Literature<\/em>, 8th edition (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), (ill.).\n\nArthur P. Shimamura, Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder<\/em> (Oxford University Press, 2013), 237 (ill.).\n\nDerek Matravers, Introducing Philosophy of Art: In Eight Case Studies<\/em> (Durham, NC: Acumen, 2013), (ill.).\n\nDuane Preble et al., Prebles' Artforms<\/em>, 11th edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2013), 428 (ill.).\n\nJudith Barter et al., Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine<\/em>, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 10, 34, 132, 196\u201397, 199, 224, cat. 28, fig. 13 (ill.).\n\nRobert Burleigh, Edward Hopper Paints His World<\/em> (Henry Holt and Co., 2014), (ill.).\n\nSteven Mintz, The Prime of Life: A History of Modern Adulthood<\/em> (Belknap Press, 2015), (ill.).\n\nRamsay H. Slugg, Handbook of Practical Planning for Art Collectors and Their Advisors<\/em> (American Bar Association, 2015), (ill.).\n\nJudith A. Barter, ed. America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s<\/em>, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago\/Yale University Press, 2016), 178, fig. 3 (ill.).\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Highlights of the Collection<\/em> (Art Institute of Chicago, 2017), 135.\n\nJudith A. Barter, \"Prolog: Eine neue Welt der Kunst\" and Susanne Scharf, \"Bilder von Amerika: Edward Hoppers \u00c4esthetisierung des Allt\u00e4glichen,\" in Es war einmal in Amerika \u2013 300 Jahre US-amerikanische Kunst [Once Upon a Time in America: Three Centuries of American Art]<\/em>, eds. Barbara Schaefer and Anita Hachmann (Cologne: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud\/Wienand Verlag, 2018), 25, fig. 12 (ill.); 219, fig. 1 (ill.).\n\nYang Zhigang, ed., Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865\u20131945<\/em>, exh. cat. (Shanghai Book and Painting Press, 2018), cat. 71.\n\nCharles Passy, \"Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks' Gets 21st Century Makeover,\" The Wall Street Journal<\/em>, Dec. 5, 2020, https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/edward-hoppers-nighthawks-gets-21st-century-makeover-11607184000<\/a>.\n\n\"The Defining Artworks of 2020,\" ARTnews<\/em>, Dec. 9, 2020, https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/list\/art-news\/artists\/most-important-artworks-2020-1234578712\/edward-hopper-nighthawks-1942<\/a>, ill.\n\nHall W. Rockefeller, \"A Rehang of Hopper's Iconic 'Nighthawks' Changes the Game,\" Hyperallergic<\/em>, Mar. 23, 2022, https:\/\/hyperallergic.com\/718667\/a-rehang-of-edward-hopper-iconic-nighthawks-changes-the-game<\/a> (ill.).\n\nBobby McGee, \"Edward Hopper's 'Nighthawks' Captures the Isolation of American Modernity. Here Are Three Things You Might Not Know About It,\" ArtNet<\/em>, Dec. 28, 2023, https:\/\/news.artnet.com\/art-world-archives\/edward-hopper-nighthawks-facts-2414407<\/a>, (ill.).","exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, The Fifty\u2013third Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture<\/em><\/a>, Oct. 29\u2013Dec. 10, 1942, cat. 132.\n\nIndianapolis, 1943.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, The Fifty\u2013fourth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture<\/em><\/a>, Oct. 28\u2013Dec. 12, 1943, cat. 15.\n\nNew York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper: Retrospective Exhibition<\/em>, Feb. 11\u2013Mar. 26, 1950, cat. 61, pl. 28; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Apr. 13\u2013May 14, 1950; Detroit Institute of Arts, June 4\u2013July 2, 1950.\n\nNew York City, Wildenstein, Loan Exhibition of Seventy Twentieth Century American Paintings<\/em>, Feb. 21\u2013Mar. 22, 1952, cat. 54.\n\nVenice, Esposiazione Biennale Internazionale d\u2019Arte<\/em>, June 14\u2013Oct. 19, 1952, cat. 26.\n\nIL, Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, A Century of American Painting: Masterpieces Loaned by The Art Institute of Chicago<\/em>, June 10\u201316, 1957, no. 28.\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950<\/em><\/a>, Oct. 1, 1959\u2013Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].\n\nNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper<\/em>, Sept. 29\u2013Nov. 29, 1964, cat. 43; Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 18\u2013Jan. 31, 1965.\n\nCleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Fifty Years of Modern Art<\/em>, June 14\u2013July 31, 1966, cat. 81.\n\nNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist<\/em>, Sept. 23, 1980\u2013Jan. 18, 1981, cat. 386; London, Hayward Gallery, Feb. 11\u2013Mar. 29, 1981 (separate catalogue, cat. 96), Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Apr. 22\u2013June 17, 1981; D\u00fcsseldorf, St\u00e4dtische Kunsthalle, July 10\u2013Sept. 6, 1981; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 3\u2013Nov. 29, 1981; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dec16, 1981\u2013Feb. 14, 1982.\n\nEssen, Germany, Museum Folkwang, Edward Hopper und die Fotografie: die Warheit des Sichtbaren (Edward Hopper and Photography: The Truth of the Real)<\/em>, June 28\u2013Sept. 27, 1992, p. 63, ill.\n\nLondon, Tate Modern, Edward Hopper<\/em>, May 27\u2013Sept. 5, 2004; Cologne, Museum Ludwig, Oct. 9, 2004\u2013Jan. 9, 2005.\n\nNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Holiday in Reality: Edward Hopper<\/em>, June 7\u2013Dec. 3, 2006, lent Oct. 3\u2013Dec. 31, 2006, no cat.\n\nBoston, Museum of Fine Arts, Edward Hopper<\/em>, May 6\u2013Aug. 19, 2007; Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art, Sept. 16, 2007\u2013Jan. 21, 2008; Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 16\u2013May 11, 2008.\n\nMadrid, Museo Thyssen\u2013Bornemisza, Edward Hopper<\/em>, June 12\u2013Sept. 16, 2012; Paris, Galeries nationales d'exposition du Grand Palais, Oct. 5, 2012\u2013Jan. 28, 2013 (Paris only).\n\nNew York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper Drawings<\/em>, May 23\u2013Oct. 6, 2013; Dallas Museum of Art, Nov. 17, 2013\u2013Feb. 16, 2014; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, Mar. 15\u2013June 22, 2014 (New York only).\n\nArt Institute of Chicago, Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine<\/em><\/a>, Nov. 10, 2013\u2013Jan. 27, 2014, cat. 28; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Feb. 22\u2013May 18, 2014.\n\nShanghai Museum, Pathways to Modernism: American Art, 1865\u20131945<\/em>, Sept. 28, 2018\u2013Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 71.","provenance_text":"Edward Hopper (1882\u20131967), 1942; consigned to Frank Rehn Galleries, 1942; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1942.","edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":21,"fiscal_year":1942,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":true,"has_educational_resources":true,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":27.5607,"color":{"h":41,"l":41,"s":44,"percentage":0.000198592327543361,"population":127},"latitude":41.8792918711661,"longitude":-87.622286361763,"latlon":"41.879291871166,-87.622286361763","is_on_view":true,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":"Gallery 262","gallery_id":2147478064,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Painting","artwork_type_id":1,"department_title":"Arts of the Americas","department_id":"PC-3","artist_id":34996,"artist_title":"Edward Hopper","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[34996],"artist_titles":["Edward Hopper"],"category_ids":["PC-109","PC-832","PC-831","PC-827","PC-3","PC-839"],"category_titles":["Art Institute Icons","Drinking and Dining","Essentials","SAIC Alumni and Faculty","Arts of the Americas","Save Ferris"],"term_titles":["oil paint (paint)","modern and contemporary art","Modernism","architecture","painting (image making)","canvas","painting","people","buildings","view through windows","dining","drinking","oil painting"],"style_id":"TM-5981","style_title":"Modernism","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-5981"],"style_titles":["Modernism"],"classification_id":"TM-155","classification_title":"modern and contemporary art","alt_classification_ids":["TM-9"],"classification_ids":["TM-155","TM-9"],"classification_titles":["modern and contemporary art","painting"],"subject_id":"TM-12085","alt_subject_ids":["TM-8810","TM-12296","TM-13093","TM-12076","TM-12077"],"subject_ids":["TM-12085","TM-8810","TM-12296","TM-13093","TM-12076","TM-12077"],"subject_titles":["architecture","people","buildings","view through windows","dining","drinking"],"material_id":"TM-2451","alt_material_ids":["TM-3124"],"material_ids":["TM-2451","TM-3124"],"material_titles":["oil paint (paint)","canvas"],"technique_id":"TM-3891","alt_technique_ids":["TM-4273"],"technique_ids":["TM-3891","TM-4273"],"technique_titles":["painting (image making)","oil painting"],"theme_titles":["Art Institute Icons","Drinking and Dining","Essentials","SAIC Alumni and Faculty","Save Ferris"],"image_id":"831a05de-d3f6-f4fa-a460-23008dd58dda","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":["f85bee6b-d18b-5577-a9e6-f429421b4654","bfe0cc09-cdb0-8ff1-5d23-b13ac4c41e29","33765c6c-258c-a3a5-ac58-89f3636ba94f"],"sound_ids":["bfe0cc09-cdb0-8ff1-5d23-b13ac4c41e29","33765c6c-258c-a3a5-ac58-89f3636ba94f"],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":["f85bee6b-d18b-5577-a9e6-f429421b4654"],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_boosted":"Nighthawks","suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1942.51"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Nighthawks"],"weight":784381,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2026-04-24T13:15:24-05:00","updated_at":"2026-06-10T23:27:27-05:00","timestamp":"2026-06-15T05:04:18-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. 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