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50 free Nighthawks trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Nighthawks trivia quiz is built around Edward Hopper's 1942 painting of four people in a late-night diner, the most recognisable image in American art. The easy questions are ones anyone who has seen the picture can answer: the artist, the year, the museum that has owned it since the year it was painted, the cigar brand on the sign and the city whose streets it shows. The harder end is for art lovers and Hopper devotees: who posed for the figures, what the couple's own journal says the title was meant to be, the price the Art Institute of Chicago paid, the Hemingway stories that may have inspired it, the New York Times writer who tried to find the real diner, the artist who put Bogart, Monroe, Dean and Elvis in the booth, the film director who waved a reproduction at his crew, and the Tom Waits album named after it. A final stretch covers Hopper's life and other paintings, plus the 1981 Stallone thriller and the bird that share the name. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries for the painting, the artist and the works that quote it before publishing, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Famous Paintings, Art History and Edward Hopper-era American Art quizzes next.
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Q 01Which American artist painted Nighthawks?
Edward Hopper
It is usually classed with American Realism and is often called his best-known work.
Q 02In which year was Nighthawks completed?
1942
Hopper finished it a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Q 03How many people are shown inside the diner in Nighthawks?
Four
Three are customers and one is the counterman in his white coat and cap.
Q 04Which museum bought Nighthawks within months of its completion?
Art Institute of Chicago
It hangs there alongside American Gothic and Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte.
Q 05How much did the Chicago museum pay for Nighthawks in 1942?
$3,000
Director Daniel Catton Rich pronounced it as fine as a Winslow Homer before arranging the purchase.
Q 06Which cigar brand appears on the sign above the diner in Nighthawks?
Phillies
Jo Hopper's notes record the price on the sign as five cents.
Q 07Who posed for the two men in Nighthawks, using a mirror?
Edward Hopper himself
His wife Jo posed for the woman in the red blouse, as she did for most of his figures after 1924.
Q 08Who wrote in a 1942 letter that Night Hawks 'would be a fine name' for the picture?
Josephine Hopper
The couple's own record book shows the intended title as two words, Night Hawks.
Q 09According to Jo Hopper's notes, what may the title Nighthawks refer to?
The beak-shaped nose of the man at the counter
Her notes describe him as the 'man night hawk (beak) in dark suit, steel grey hat'.
Q 10What colour is the blouse of the woman in Nighthawks?
Red
Jo's notes also list a cherry-wood counter and a streak of jade-green tiles below the window.
Q 11Which Manhattan neighbourhood's diner did Hopper say suggested the scene?
Greenwich Village
Hopper said it was suggested by a restaurant on Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet, and that he made it bigger.
Q 12Which vacant lot is most often associated with the supposed original Nighthawks diner?
Mulry Square
Jeremiah Moss showed in The New York Times that a gas station stood there from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Q 13Which author's short stories have been suggested as an inspiration for Nighthawks?
Ernest Hemingway
Hopper said he probably was painting the loneliness of a large city, though he did not see it as particularly lonely.
Q 21Which director said of Hopper's paintings, 'You can always tell where the camera is'?
Wim Wenders
Sam Mendes drew on New York Movie for the lighting of Road to Perdition.
Q 22In which 2009 sequel does Nighthawks come to life through CGI?
Night at the Museum 2
Subtitled Battle of the Smithsonian, it has the diner characters react to events outside; in a That '70s Show episode, Red and Kitty Forman turn out to be the couple at the counter.
Q 23Which cable channel's 'Open All Night' intro (1994-2021) ended on a Nighthawks scene?
Turner Classic Movies
Q 14Which Hopper painting did MoMA's Alfred Barr praise before Jo sent him to see Nighthawks?
Gas
Gas, a composite of several filling stations, ended up at MoMA anyway through a 1943 bequest.
Q 15At which New York gallery was Nighthawks first placed on display for sale?
Rehn's
Frank Rehn had given Hopper his first solo show in 1924.
Q 16Which 1984 painting recasts Nighthawks with Bogart, Monroe, James Dean and Elvis?
Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Red Grooms' 1980 Nighthawks Revisited instead clutters the street with pedestrians, cats and trash.
Q 17Which street artist's 2005 parody puts a drunk hooligan in Union Flag boxers outside?
Banksy
A mural version of Nighthawks also covered a defunct Chinese restaurant in Santa Rosa until 2019.
Q 18Which director waved a reproduction of Nighthawks at his crew while making Blade Runner?
Ridley Scott
Critics say Hopper's night scenes anticipated the look of film noir.
Q 19Which 1981 film musical had production designer Ken Adam recreate Nighthawks as a set?
Pennies from Heaven
Wim Wenders also rebuilt it for a film-within-a-film in The End of Violence in 1997.
Q 20Which Tom Waits album takes its title from the painting?
Nighthawks at the Diner
It was recorded live in a studio in front of an invited audience.
In Shameless, Frank Gallagher steals the painting and hides it in his basement.
Q 24Which 1989 poster replaced the Nighthawks figures with ducks watched by a crocodile?
Window Shopping
It spawned its own parody, Boulevard of Broken Ducks, with a contented crocodile on the counter.
Q 25Which 2013 OMD single was influenced by Nighthawks and names Hopper?
Night Café
Hopper's Early Sunday Morning had earlier inspired the sleeve of the band's album Crush.
Q 26Which Verdi opera did Jonathan Miller stage in 1950s New York with a Nighthawks-style bar?
Rigoletto
Joyce Carol Oates and Wolf Wondratschek both wrote poems imagining the diner's customers.
Q 27In which town on the Hudson was the painter of Nighthawks born in 1882?
Nyack
His childhood home there is now a museum and study centre.
Q 28Under which Ashcan School painter did Hopper study life class in New York?
Robert Henri
William Merritt Chase taught him oil painting at the same school.
Q 29At which 1913 exhibition did Hopper sell his first painting, Sailing, for $250?
The Armory Show
He was 31, and his career did not take off for another decade.
Q 30Which medium brought Hopper his first public recognition in the early 1920s?
Etching
His etching Night Shadows of 1921 already anticipated the noir mood of Nighthawks.