![]() There may be some influence from Van Gogh's Café At Night.īased on the similar theme and concentration on the play of light at night, Levin has also proposed that the famous Vincent Van Gogh piece may have sparked ideas in Hopper. So that enables writers and filmmakers–fiction writers and poets, and other artists, perhaps too–to project their own imagination…and the viewer in general." 8. In a sense, Hopper's paintings are just like that. But that short story has the sense of something about to happen, and it never does. He said that this writer was so much better than the rest and it was unusual that it wasn't sentimental or saccharin like so many stories. Noted Hopper biographer Gail Levin has said, " Nighthawks was inspired by Hemingway's short story 'The Killers,' which Hopper read in Scribner's magazine and liked so much when it first came out, that he wrote a fan letter to Scribner's. A HEMINGWAY SHORT STORY MAY HAVE HELPED INSPIRE THE PAINTING. A 2013 exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art displayed 200 Hopper sketches, including 19 that led to Nighthawks, clearly laying out the work's evolution. While sketches are often the first step for a painting's creation, Hopper took it a step further by sketching storyboards to pick the precise moments he wanted to immortalize in the final painting. Hopper became an avid sketch artist when he was just 10 years old, and as an adult he could often be found prowling the streets of New York, sketch pad and pencil in hand. Hopper storyboarded the painting ahead of Nighthawks' creation. He was about a month and half working on it." 6. posed for the two men in a mirror and I for the girl. In a letter to his sister Marion, Josephine shared, "Ed has just finished a very fine picture-a lunch counter at night with 3 figures. Both Edward and Josephine Hopper were models for Nighthawks. In Josephine's notes, she wrote a description of one of the customers: "Man night hawk (beak) in dark suit, steel grey hat, black band, blue shirt (clean) holding cigarette." This note suggests that the prominent nose of this patron makes the painting’s title a bit more literal. The TITLE Nighthawks may have been A NOD TO one of the diner's patrons. But in fact, it measures 33 1/8 inches by 60 inches, roughly 2.75 feet by 5 feet. It's bigger than you MIGHT expect.Ī quiet scene that could be the beginning or end of a million different stories, Nighthawks seems like it might be a small painting like the Mona Lisa. ![]() The Hopper classic is still on display in the Institute’s galleries. ![]() Rich was quick to purchase Nighthawks for the Art Institute for $3000 ($43,200.37 adjusting for inflation). When Daniel Catton Rich, director of the Art Institute of Chicago, first laid eyes on the painting a few short months after Hopper put on the final touches, he declared it was as " fine as Homer"-referencing the 19 th century American landscape painter. This is how we know the precise date of Nighthawks' completion (January 21, 1942), and various other details, like that the painting was originally titled Night Hawks. Josephine Hopper (née Nivison) oversaw a shared journal, where she and her husband took notes on his paintings. HOPPER’S WIFE WAS ITS first art historian. It may seem straightforward, but this deceptively simple piece holds a lot of secrets. The quiet night scene of Edward Hopper’s most renowned painting sticks in the mind of anyone who sees it and feels familiar to anyone who’s taken an art history class.
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