In the plot of Hopper’s most famous painting, Nighthawks, they are the night guests of the diner, each of whom is immersed in his thoughts. As if for a second, the only representative of the cafe staff breaks away from his business to look somewhere in the distance, over the heads of customers, over everything that is happening around. The street is empty and dark; it is illuminated only by a bright light from the windows of the delayed institution. This detail is not immediately noticeable, but emerging, it does not give rest and, with violent force, intensifies a feeling of constraint and hopelessness: the diner has no visible doors.
The composition is well-coordinated and stingy with details: there is no entrance to the establishment and no garbage on the streets. Hopper created a serene, beautiful yet mysterious scene through the harmonious geometric shapes and the glow of the diner’s electric lighting. The triangular architecture of the diner suggests that it is located at the intersection of streets. The bright yellow and white colors used in the interior of the diner, as well as the bright wood of the bar counter, make the diner warm and cozy. It contrasts with the street’s green, darker, empty atmosphere and surrounding buildings. Hopper plays on a pause, an atmosphere of expectation, and for the artist’s picture to be fully revealed to the audience, first, one just needs to stop, leave any haste, feel into it, and project oneself into the place of the characters.
As a hawk has impeccable eyesight and sees its victims from afar, the viewer watches the heroes from the side and, one might say, sees them through, as if through a transparent glass behind which they are located. The heroes will sit silently until morning, until the first rays of dawn, which, however, will not bring relief but will only bring the need to go to work (Bundschuh 391). They do not care about the silent twilight, which greedily peers into what is happening through the empty eye sockets of the windows. They are self-absorbed, even the two who came together. Nighthawks depicts the bitter alienation of life in the big city. The painting can be seen as a study of human existentialism and loneliness in the modern age.
Work Cited
Bundschuh, Jessica. “Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, 1942.” Poetics Today, vol. 39, no. 2, 2018, pp. 383–401., Web.