Nighthawks: the loneliest painting in America — and the man who said it wasn't

Nighthawks is called the loneliest painting in America. The man who painted it said, on the record, that he never saw it as particularly lonely and he and his wife spent most of their own nights at a diner counter much like it. Chapters: 00:00 The Reputation / The Whole / The Handoff 01:16 The Pressure System / The Studio 02:52 The Route 03:18 The Denial / The Concession 05:45 The Diner That Isn't There 07:09 The Woman In Red 08:26 The Ledger 09:26 The Four Figures / The Long Look 10:50 The Marriage That Never Cooked 11:53 The Whole Again / The Question He Left Us The Underdrawing: Beneath every masterpiece. Subscribe:    / @theunderdrawing   Credits: Featured painting Edward Hopper — Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago. Public domain Edward Hopper — Automat, 1927, Des Moines Art Center (acc. 1958.2). Edward Hopper — Night Windows, 1928, Museum of Modern Art (gift of John Hay Whitney); underlying painting public domain in the US. Edward Hopper — Night on the El Train, 1918 (etching), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (gift of William Emerson); underlying etching public domain in the US. Edward Hopper, New York artist — Harris & Ewing, 1937, Library of Congress (no known copyright restrictions). Robert Henri — The Art Student (Miss Josephine Nivison), 1906, Milwaukee Art Museum (public domain). Cafeteria on the Bowery, New York — Marjory Collins, September 1942, Library of Congress, FSA/OWI Collection (US government work, public domain). Evening Star front page, 8 December 1941 — Library of Congress, Chronicling America (public domain). WW2 archive footage B-17 Mission to Bremen, 1943 — US Army Air Forces, via Internet Archive (item CS-610). Big News of 1941 (bombs falling; war-production floor) — Universal Newsreel, 1941, via Internet Archive; library donated to the US National Archives without copyright restriction. Army Air Forces Newsreels, 1941 — US Army Air Forces, via Internet Archive. Troop Train, 1943 — US Office of War Information, via Internet Archive (Prelinger Archives). Photographs Edward and Josephine Hopper — Hans Namuth, 1964, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (NPG.95.139; © Hans Namuth Ltd.). Edward Hopper — Berenice Abbott, 1949, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution (© Berenice Abbott/Getty Images). Edward and Jo at Two Lights — Fred Mauries, 1927, Whitney Museum of American Art (Sanborn Hopper Archive). Edward Hopper in his studio, 3 Washington Square North — George Platt Lynes, 1950, Whitney Museum of American Art. Group of artists at the Rehn Gallery — Peter A. Juley & Son, 1945, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Artworks Edward Hopper — Study for Nighthawks, 1941–42, Whitney Museum of American Art (© Heirs of Josephine N. Hopper, licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York). Josephine Nivison Hopper — Self Portrait and Basket of Fruit (watercolours), Edward Hopper House Museum & Study Center, Nyack (Sanborn Josephine Nivison Hopper Collection). Gottfried Helnwein — Boulevard of Broken Dreams, 1984 (© Gottfried Helnwein). George Segal — The Diner, 1964–66, Walker Art Center. Banksy — Are You Using That Chair?, 2005 (Crude Oils, Notting Hill, 2005). Books quoted Gail Levin — Edward Hopper: The Art and the Artist (W. W. Norton / Whitney Museum, 1980). Katharine Kuh — The Artist's Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists (Harper & Row, 1962). Penny Huntsman — Thinking About Art (Wiley-Blackwell). Robert Hughes — Nothing If Not Critical (Alfred A. Knopf).