Q 01/05

Which everyday feature did Hopper leave out of the diner in Nighthawks?

A) A street entrance

B) Counter stools

C) Coffee urns

D) A kitchen door

Answer · why

A) A street entrance

A street entrance is nowhere to be seen. Hopper painted no way in, so the viewer, drawn to the light, is shut out behind a seamless wedge of glass.

Q 02/05

Nighthawks was finished weeks after which event?

A) Pearl Harbor

B) The Blitz

C) Dunkirk

D) Hiroshima

Answer · why

A) Pearl Harbor

The attack on Pearl Harbor had New Yorkers bracing for air raids, but Hopper painted on. His wife Jo complained that he 'refused to take any interest ...

Q 03/05

In Nighthawks, what stands in the window of the dark shop across the street from the diner?

A) A wall clock

B) A cash register

C) A barber's pole

D) A weighing scale

Answer · why

B) A cash register

A cash register, an old-fashioned one, is the only thing on show in the unlit shop. Some critics read it as a sign of an older, more settled world of ...

Q 04/05

Which museum bought Nighthawks within months of its completion?

A) Philadelphia Museum of Art

B) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

C) National Gallery of Art

D) Art Institute of Chicago

Answer · why

D) Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago director Daniel Catton Rich saw it at Hopper's dealer and soon arranged to buy it. Jo Hopper had urged the head of New York's...

Q 05/05

About how much did a museum pay for Nighthawks in 1942?

A) $30

B) $3,000

C) $300,000

D) $30 million

Answer · why

B) $3,000

$3,000 bought what became one of the most recognisable paintings in American art. In 2018 another Hopper canvas sold at auction for almost $92 million...