How are you?
Currently, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting
Art Stories”.
The 46th story is “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper.
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| Edward Hopper |
“Nighthawks”
is an oil painting painted in 1942 by Edward Hopper, an American realist
painter. It portrays people in a downtown diner late at night as seen through
the large glass window of the diner, and the light coming from the diner
illuminates the dark and deserted city street.
The painting, which is
Hopper's most famous painting as well as one of the most famous paintings in
American art, was purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago on May 13, 1942, a
few months after the painting was completed.
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| Art Institute of Chicago |
It has been suggested that the painting was inspired by Ernest Hemingway's short story, either "The Killers" or "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.”
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| Ernest Hemingway |
Some art historians have
suggested that the painting may have been inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s “Café
Terrace at Night”, which was exhibited in a gallery that Hopper visited
frequently at same time he painted this painting.
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| Café Terrace at Night, Vincent van Gogh (1888) |
Responding to the question
for loneliness and emptiness in this painting, Hopper said, "I didn't see
it as particularly lonely, but unconsciously, I was painting the loneliness of
a large city.”
In this painting, Edward
Hopper posed for the two men and his wife Josephine posed for the red-haired
woman.
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| Self-portrait, Josephine Hopper |
The scene in this painting
was supposedly inspired by a diner in Greenwich Village in Manhattan, which was
demolished after the painting. Hopper said “This painting was suggested by a
restaurant on Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet.” He also said “I
simplified the scene a great deal and made the restaurant bigger.”
This very famous painting
has been influenced on many works of culture and arts.
For the paintings, Hopper influenced on the Photorealists of the late 1960s and early 1970s, including Ralph Goings.
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| Ralph's Diner, Ralph Goings (1981–1982) |
Gottfried Helnwein's painting "Boulevard of Broken Dreams
(1984)" replaced the four characters in this paintings with American pop
culture icons Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Elvis Presley.
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| Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Gottfried Helnwein (1984) |
For the films, Hopper was an avid moviegoer and critics mentioned that his paintings resembled film stills.
This painting and his works, such as “Night Shadows (1921),” resemble the look
of film noir, in which Hopper may have been influenced.
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| Night Shadows, Edward Hopper (1921) |
Hopper influenced on the musical film "Pennies from Heaven (1981)," for which the film's production designer Ken Adam recreated this painting as a film set.
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| Pennies from Heaven (1981) |
Director
Wim Wenders recreated this painting as the set for a film-within-a-film in “The
End of Violence (1997).”
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| The End of Violence (1997) |
For the music, the title,
cover and lyrics of Tom Waits' album “Nighthawks at the Diner (1975)” were
inspired by this painting.
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| Nighthawks at the Diner, Tom Waits (1975) |
Thank you.
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