OIL PAINTING: Nighthawks, 1942
Hopper's paintings are marked by striking juxta-positions of color, and by the clear contours with which the figures are demarcated from their surroundings. His extremely precise focus on the theme of modern men and women in the natural and man-made environment sometimes lends his paintings a mood of eerie disquiet. In House by the Railroad and Nighthawks, a harsh interplay of light and shadow makes the abandoned building seem veritably threatening.