Edward Hopper painted Nighthawks in 1942, and that painting has largely defined how people think of his work. But Chop Suey — painted thirteen years earlier — shows a different, warmer register. Two women at a table by a window in a Chinese restaurant, the light coming in from the street, the room busy with other diners just out of frame. It is a painting about a particular kind of city afternoon: companionable, unhurried, slightly apart from the world outside.
Pomegranate produces this puzzle in collaboration with the private collection holding the original — one of Hopper's most sought-after works, which sold at auction in 2018 for $91.9 million. The colour reproduction captures the warm amber-ochre of the interior, the cooler tones of the street light through the window, and the specific quality of Hopper's shadows.
How it assembles
The composition divides into clear zones — the two women in the foreground, the window and its light, the background diners and the decorative elements of the restaurant. The warm interior palette is consistent but varied enough to sort. The window section has its own cooler, lighter quality that separates it naturally. The decorative lettering visible through the window and the Chinese lanterns are small but distinctive anchors in the upper portion.
More accessible than Nighthawks for puzzlers who find low-variation dark sections frustrating. The warm interior gives you more to work with throughout. A good Hopper introduction, and a different side of the artist for anyone who knows him primarily through Nighthawks.
As a gift
A considered gift for anyone who loves American realism, Hopper specifically, or a puzzle with genuine pictorial intelligence. At $34.99, and worth displaying when finished.