The painting "Nighthawk" by artist Edward Hopper is a masterpiece.  The reason the painting is so popular is because it captures the imagination of its spectators. The painting itself is shrouded in mystery and makes the viewer think about everything in the painting, not just the parts that are most obvious.  The painting evokes a sense of realism that is very hard to create even for the most seasoned artist.

When you first look at the painting your eyes are automatically drawn to the only part of the painting that emits light.  The dinner.  The dinner is the centerpiece of the artwork because it is where the main action is happening.  By the word "action I mean that this is where the only people in the scene are located.  They are not actually doing anything besides sitting but they still draw the attention to themselves without the need of physical movement.  The dinner is creating the fishbowl effect, and allows you to see into the dinner and into the lives of its guests.  

When you look into the dinner the first thing you see is the young red-haired women in the red dress.  Attention is drawn to her by contrast.  Everything else in the painting is dark and lonely, while she looks vibrant and alive.  Maybe this is done for a reason, maybe she is the center of the painting.  However, even though she is the most vibrant thing in the painting, she still looks as if she is sad or lonely.  

To the left, or to her right.  There is a man sitting next to her.  This man could be anybody, could be anybody, her husband, her lover, her father. The man is not able to be clearly depicted. The only thing that is visible is his suit and his face.  The inspiration behind the name of the painting "Nighthawk" comes from the shape of the mans nose.  A bird's beak. One thing from the two figures is true.  Both the bird nosed man and the red dressed woman know each other very well or else they would not be sitting next to each other in a dinner in the late hours of the night.

Another figure in the painting is one that comes off as a normal one.  A dark suited man with a coffee and a newspaper at hand.  This is exactly the type of man that you would indeed expect to be sitting alone in a dinner late at night.  This man contrasts the other two patrons perfectly.  This man is the only person in the painting that has no face. The fact that he doesn't have a face just adds to the emphasize on the couple sitting across the table.  The man however does look mysterious.  He looks mysterious maybe because of his posture, or the way he is facing.

The last man in the painting is wearing all white.  This man is clearly an attendant based of his looks and his position in the bar.  This man is also the only one in the painting that is performing an action.  He is reaching for something below the countertop.

The dinner itself is pretty plane.  There is a long bar with a wooden countertop. There is also two large antique coffee brewers in the back up against the wall.

To me, the most interesting thing in the painting is not actually the dinner.  The most interesting thing is what is going on just outside the dinner.  What is going on outside the dinner?  Absolutely nothing is going on outside the dinner.  That is what is so interesting, that there is nothing interesting.  Most artists try to capture things in their artwork that would actually be interesting to people.  While Edward Hopper did the opposite.  

In the painting if you look outside the dinner you see dark empty streets.  Above the streets you see shadowy windowsills that look spooky as if someone is lurking in the shadow.  Or above the street you really just find people sleeping in the rooms doing nothing spooky at all.  The dark windows are the most interesting thing to me because it leaves room for the imagination of what you think could be hiding in the shadows.

Another thing that is interesting about the outside of the dinner is the street.  Just outside the dinner is the street.  When you look at the painting it looks as if you are looking at it in first person.  The painting makes you feel as if you are actually there.  If you were actually there you would feel the sense of loneliness that you would feel if you were actually walking the streets late at night.

The painting does many things well.  However, I think the best thing it did was take a scene that does not usually get depicted, and show it in a realistic manner.  From the glowing dinner onto the empty streets all the way up to the dark windows.  This Painting did a fantastic job creating a sense of realism and loneliness.  These reason are reason why this is actually one of my favorite painting, and not just because I am required to write a paper about an image.

