Edward Hopper was an American painter best remembered for his eerily realistic depictions of solitude in contemporary American life. He derived his subject matter from the common features of American life — gas stations, motels, the railroad, or an empty street. The best known of these paintings, Nighthawks (1942), shows the lonely customers frequenting a downtown all-night diner. A prophet of loneliness, this laconic individualist captured the anarchy of American cities, the quiet melancholy of small towns, and suburbs. Paradoxically, his pictures have a restorative, bracing effect, because of Hopper's emotional attachment to his native environment. In terms of subject matter, he can be compared to his contemporary, Norman Rockwell, but while Rockwell exalted in the rich imagery of small-town America, Hopper depicts it in the same sense of forlorn solitude that permeates his portrayal of city life.