[1] Hotel Lobby is a signature piece in Hopper's work, displaying his classic themes of alienation and brevity.

The elevated and theatrical vantage point of the painting may be derived from Hopper's love of Broadway theatre which he often watched from the balcony.

[1] Before he created the Hotel Lobby Hopper drew ten studies of the work, which were later given to the Whitney Museum of American Art by the estate of his wife, Josephine.

Most alterations were made in the position of the young woman's head and in outlines of some areas in dark blue paint.

One of the few paintings by Hopper to lack windows, Hotel Lobby uses light from the revolving door and an unseen area from between the ceiling beams.

[7][8] The painting was chosen by a jury composed of Juliana Force, then director of the Whitney Museum, and artists Raphael Soyer and Reginald Marsh.

[1] In 2008 the IMA exhibited the work alongside the ten studies on loan from the Whitney in Edward Hopper: Paper to Paint, which ran until January 2009.

[12] The painting also appears in City Limits: Crime, consumer culture and the urban experience by Keith Hayward.