#16: Nighthawks – Edward Hopper (1942)
Nighthawks (1942) captures a diner glowing under artificial light, set against quiet, empty streets. Painted shortly after Pearl Harbor, the work radiates wartime anxiety, loneliness, and stillness. Hopper’s wife, Josephine, posed for the woman and suggested the title after noticing a male figure’s “hawk-beaked” profile.
Inspired by a real Greenwich Avenue diner but reimagined through Hopper’s geometric composition and muted palette, the painting turns isolation into cinematic beauty.