It could, at first glance, be a painting – a split-second slice of life straight from the canvas of American realism painter Edward Hopper.
But the image of a woman sat on her phone delicately eating a pastry, bathed in the warm light of a London branch of GAIL’s, was captured on that most humble of canvases: an iPhone 13.
Richard Walls, 59, took the snap as he killed time in Greenwich ahead of a Katy Perry concert at The O2 and shared it to X, where he made the comparison between his picture and Hopper’s 1942 painting, Nighthawks.
By massive coincidence, Hopper is said to have been inspired by Greenwich Village, New York, when he came to paint the picture of four figures – a lone man, a couple and a worker – inside a downtown diner late at night.
‘As a fan of Edward Hopper I couldn’t help but take this photo in Greenwich tonight,’ Mr Walls wrote.
Others agreed – and the photo has now been seen some 3.4million times, garnering 94,000 likes and 8,100 reposts along the way, as well as a chain of other photographers sharing their own Nighthawk-alikes.
The Yorkshire-based landscape photographer and art gallery owner has been left flabbergasted by the response.
Richard Walls’s image of a woman sitting in GAIL’s has drawn comparisons to one of the world’s most famous paintings
Nighthawks was painted by American realism painter Edward Hopper in 1942 and depicts four figures inside a late night diner
Mr Walls said: ‘The only thing I had was my iPhone, I didn’t have any camera equipment.
‘There is something compelling about just a single person framed in that sort of building.
‘If I had gone a little to the left or right you would have seen other people or staff.’
Hopper was one of America’s most highly regarded artists and a leading painter in the American Realism movement.
His works often explored themes of loneliness and isolation – the spirit of which, some commentators noted, had arguably been captured in Mr Walls’s photo.
But Mr Walls has since noted in a personal blog that the photo is a ‘cheat’, writing that the street itself was busy and that the GAIL’s itself had other diners.
‘It’s a reminder that the framing of the scene and the timing of shutter release creates its own reality,’ he wrote, humbly adding of the Hopper comparisons: ‘At best it’s a pale imitation and is, in truth, a lucky capture.’
He added of the artist: ‘He is just a fantastic painter. Even if you don’t know who the work is by you will probably have seen his work or something that is influenced by it.
‘The people in his paintings were all unaware that they were being observed, and if he had painted it in 2025 the four people in Nighthawks would probably have been looking at phones.
‘It is sort of an updated version of what he was doing at the time. And I think that is why it resonated.
‘It is what he would have done now rather than what he did in the 1940s.’
Mr Walls initially did not realise he had paid an inadvertent tribute to one of his icons.
And when he shared the picture online, he never expected it to go viral, and now hopes to track down the woman in the picture in order to give her a copy.
‘I put it on to Twitter with no expectation at all,’ he said.
‘Usually if I put something up that isn’t a Swaledale landscape picture I get about five likes, so I was happy when I got to 30 likes.
‘Three or four hours later we were sat in a pub and it had gone up to 7,000. Which was quite incredible. Now it is up to 94,000, which has never happened to me before.
‘I have never had a picture go viral before in the way that this photo has gone viral. I think it is a total one-off.
‘I guess Edward Hopper is someone who is still very much appreciated. The themes in his paintings must still resonate with people.
GAIL’s itself is yet to weigh in. The Daily Mail has contacted the bakery chain for comment.
