Edward Hopper

Known for: Nighthawks (1942); American realism

Edward Hopper spent years as an illustrator before establishing himself as a painter, and the clarity of his compositions — gas stations, diners, hotel rooms, theater lobbies — retains the directness of commercial art while achieving something more existentially resonant. Nighthawks (1942), which depicts four figures in an all-night diner, has been reproduced more than almost any other American painting. He worked slowly, sometimes spending months on a single canvas.