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A Literary Hub report revisits how Edward Hopper developed Nighthawks, drawing on preparatory sketches, accounts from his wife Jo and competing theories about the diner’s model. The painting was underway before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but its creation continued as wartime blackouts and fears of bombing reshaped life in New York. The exact diner that inspired it has not been identified.
A Literary Hub report revisits the making of Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, tracing its development from late 1941 through the wartime atmosphere that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor. The account draws on Hopper’s preparatory sketches, statements by the artist and letters from his wife, Josephine “Jo” Hopper, while concluding that the real-life diner behind the painting has not been identified with certainty.
Hopper had begun work on the painting by late November 1941, according to the report. Photographer Arnold Newman photographed him beside an empty canvas that month. Hopper had settled on the work’s dimensions and likely made many of the 19 preparatory sketches, some annotated with numbers showing how to enlarge elements for the final composition. During the winter, he visited the Dixie Kitchen diner in Midtown to sketch objects including coffee urns, cups, salt and pepper shakers and napkin dispensers.
The figures also drew on different sources. Hopper used a full-length mirror to model the two suited men, while Jo posed for the auburn-haired woman. The blond counterman was invented by the artist, though Jo reportedly thought he resembled “practically Capt. Ed Staples.” The completed painting, an oil on canvas measuring 33 1/8 by 60 inches, was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1942 and remains in its collection.
The report says Hopper linked the scene to “a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet.” A 1954 Vogue article described the work as based partly on an all-night coffee stand he saw there, but researchers have proposed several possible locations. Art historian Carter Foster identified the now-vanished Crawford Lunch, near Greenwich Avenue and Twelfth Street, as a likely source in 2013. The painting’s broad, curved glass window and other design features do not match known details of the candidate sites, however, supporting the possibility that Hopper combined observations with invented elements.
A Diner Scene Shaped by Wartime New York
The report places the painting’s familiar mood against a specific historical shift. Hopper planned Nighthawks before Pearl Harbor, attacked on December 7, 1941, but continued working as the United States entered the Second World War and New Yorkers faced blackouts and concerns about possible air raids. That chronology does not establish that the painting was intended as a response to the attack; it shows that its creation and reception unfolded amid rapidly changing fears.
Jo’s correspondence gives a personal account of that setting. In a letter dated December 17, she described her worries about living beneath glass skylights and said she was preparing a bag in case they had to leave quickly. She also wrote that Hopper was intensely focused on his new canvas. The contrast between her practical concerns and his concentration offers documented context for the work without settling what its figures or empty street mean.
The report also explains why identifying the diner matters to accounts of the painting. Its architecture and period details make the scene feel grounded in New York, yet the exact location remains uncertain. The likely combination of observed objects and invented design cautions against treating the image as a straightforward record of one identifiable restaurant.
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From Sketches to a New York Icon
Nighthawks was completed in 1942 and purchased that year by the Art Institute of Chicago using funds from the Friends of American Art. The report describes a working process that moved between direct observation and studio construction: Hopper sketched diner equipment, developed the composition in drawings and used himself and Jo as models for several figures.
Hopper’s own account, as quoted in the report, points to a restaurant at a Greenwich Avenue intersection. A Vogue account published in 1954 also connected the scene with a coffee stand on the avenue. Those references have encouraged attempts to find a specific building, including locations at 70 Greenwich Avenue, the former Riker’s restaurant and Crawford Lunch. The report presents Crawford Lunch as a plausible candidate, not a confirmed source.
Some details appear to resist a one-to-one match with those establishments. The diner’s uninterrupted curved glass front, its Art Deco appearance and the cigar advertisement are not all accounted for by the proposed sites. The report suggests Hopper may have drawn on several places and designed other elements himself; it also raises the Flatiron Building’s glass-fronted form as a possible visual influence, rather than a proven source.
“Nighthawks seems to be the way I think of a night street.”
— Edward Hopper, as quoted in the Literary Hub report
The Diner’s Address Remains Unknown
The report does not establish which restaurant, if any, served as the single model for the diner. Crawford Lunch is presented as a strong possibility based on its location, shape and the appearance of the word “Lunch” in a late study, but those clues do not prove Hopper used it as the definitive source. Other proposed Greenwich Avenue sites also remain unconfirmed.
It is also uncertain how much of the painting’s architecture and mood came from observation, memory or invention. The report offers possible connections, including a visual resemblance to the Flatiron Building’s glass-fronted prow, but does not establish that Hopper deliberately borrowed that design. The sources described here likewise do not settle a single intended interpretation of the painting’s figures or emotional atmosphere.
Further Research May Refine the Story
The report describes existing evidence rather than announcing a new identification or a change to the painting’s status. Any firmer account of the diner’s source would depend on additional documentary or architectural evidence connecting Hopper’s sketches and observations to a specific site. Until then, the most supportable account is that the work drew on New York diner details while transforming them into a composition that may combine several sources.
The painting remains at the Art Institute of Chicago. Readers can compare its finished design with Hopper’s studies and the proposed locations, but the report supplies no announced museum investigation or forthcoming research milestone. Its central unresolved point—the diner’s exact model—remains open.
Key Questions
When did Edward Hopper paint Nighthawks?
Hopper had started it by late November 1941, and the painting was completed in 1942, according to the report.
Where is Nighthawks now?
The painting is in the Art Institute of Chicago, which acquired it in 1942 using funds from the Friends of American Art.
Has the diner in Nighthawks been identified?
No. Crawford Lunch has been proposed as a likely source, but neither that restaurant nor another suggested location has been confirmed as the diner’s definitive model.
Did Pearl Harbor inspire the painting?
The report says Hopper had planned the work before the December 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor. He continued working during the wartime period that followed, but the supplied account does not establish that the attack inspired the painting.
Who modeled for the figures?
Hopper used himself as a model for the two suited men, and Jo Hopper posed for the auburn-haired woman. He invented the blond counterman, according to the report.
Source: lithub.com
