Art Institute of Chicago

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper · 1942

Analyst brief

What the record supports

"Nighthawks" is an oil on canvas painting by American artist Edward Hopper, created in 1942. Measuring 84.1 × 152.4 cm (33 1/8 × 60 in.), it is classified as modern and contemporary art and belongs to the Arts of the Americas department. The artwork was acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1942, entering its Friends of American Art Collection.

The provenance of "Nighthawks" indicates it originated from the artist, Edward Hopper, in New York. It was then consigned to Frank Rehn Galleries in 1942 before being sold to the Art Institute of Chicago in the same year. No auction prices are available in the provided data.

The painting has been exhibited extensively since its creation, beginning with "The Fifty–third Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture" at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1942. Notable later exhibitions include retrospective shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1950, 1964, and 1980, as well as international showings in Venice (1952) and Essen, Germany (1992).

Generated from the catalogue fields shown on this page. Nartmad does not assert attributions, valuations or prices that no cited source supports.

Provenance

Ownership history

The artist, New York; consigned to Frank Rehn Galleries, 1942; sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1942.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

Exhibition history

Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/7385/american-paintings-and-sculpture-53rd-annual-and-memorial-exhibition-of-paintings-and-drawings-by-grant-wood">The Fifty–third Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture</a>, Oct. 29–Dec. 10, 1942, cat. 132.
Indianapolis, 1943.
Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/8824/american-paintings-and-sculpture-54th-annual">The Fifty–fourth Annual Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculpture</a>, Oct. 28–Dec. 12, 1943, cat. 15.
New York City, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper: Retrospective Exhibition, Feb. 11–Mar. 26, 1950, cat. 61, pl. 28; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Apr. 13–May 14, 1950; Detroit Institute of Arts, June 4–July 2, 1950.
New York City, Wildenstein, Loan Exhibition of Seventy Twentieth Century American Paintings, Feb. 21–Mar. 22, 1952, cat. 54.
Venice, Esposiazione Biennale Internazionale d’Arte, June 14–Oct. 19, 1952, cat. 26.
IL, Durand Art Institute, Lake Forest College, A Century of American Painting: Masterpieces Loaned by The Art Institute of Chicago, June 10–16, 1957, no. 28.
Art Institute of Chicago, <a href="https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/4071/two-centuries-of-american-art-1750-1950">Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950</a>, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available].
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper, Sept. 29–Nov. 29, 1964, cat. 43; Art Institute of Chicago, Dec. 18–Jan. 31, 1965.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, Fifty Years of Modern Art, June 14–July 31, 1966, cat. 81.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist, Sept. 23, 1980–Jan. 18, 1981, cat. 386; London, Hayward Gallery, Feb. 11–Mar. 29, 1981 (separate catalogue, cat. 96), Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Apr. 22–June 17, 1981; Düsseldorf, Städtische Kunsthalle, July 10–Sept. 6, 1981; Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 3–Nov. 29, 1981; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dec16, 1981–Feb. 14, 1982.
Essen, Germany, Museum Folkwang, Edward Hopper und die Fotografie: die Warheit des Sichtbaren (Edward Hopper and Photography: The Truth of the Real), June 28–Sept. 27, 1992, p. 63, ill.

Literature

Published references

Gail Levin, “Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks, Surrealism, and the War,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 22, 2 (1996), 180–95, fig. 1.
James N. Wood and Teri J. Edelstein, The Art Institute of Chicago: Twentieth–Century Painting and Sculpture (Art Institute of Chicago, 1996), 85 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), no. 133.
Nina Baym et al., eds., The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 8th edition (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012), (ill.).
Arthur P. Shimamura, Experiencing Art: In the Brain of the Beholder (Oxford University Press, 2013), 237 (ill.).
Derek Matravers, Introducing Philosophy of Art: In Eight Case Studies (Durham, NC: Acumen, 2013), (ill.).
Duane Preble et al., Prebles' Artforms, 11th edition (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2013), 428 (ill.).
Judith Barter et al., Art and Appetite: American Painting, Culture, and Cuisine, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2013), 10, 34, 132, 196–97, 199, 224, cat. 28, fig. 13 (ill.).
Robert Burleigh, Edward Hopper Paints His World (Henry Holt and Co., 2014), (ill.).
Steven Mintz, The Prime of Life: A History of Modern Adulthood (Belknap Press, 2015), (ill.).
Ramsay H. Slugg, Handbook of Practical Planning for Art Collectors and Their Advisors (American Bar Association, 2015), (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, ed. America After the Fall: Painting in the 1930s, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2016), 178, fig. 3 (ill.).

Comparables