A café terrace on a square in Arles glows golden under a gas lamp, a deep blue starry sky above and multicoloured cobblestones below. It was Van Gogh's first painting of a starry sky, nine months before The Starry Night.
Key facts
- Artist
- Vincent van Gogh1853–1890 · Dutch
- Date
- September 1888
- Period
- Post-Impressionism1886–1905
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 80.7 × 65.3 cm
- Location
- Kröller-Müller Museum Otterlo, Netherlands
Actual size
Compared with an adult 170 cm tall
Palette
#5B5A4C#847550#35322A#7D8DA9#C7B25FBackground
The scene is the Place du Forum in the centre of Arles; the café still exists and is now called Café Van Gogh. Van Gogh painted on the spot at night, which was very unusual at the time.
He wrote to his sister: “Here you have a night painting without black, with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green... in these surroundings the lit square is coloured pale sulphur and lemon green.”
Technique & composition
Van Gogh used strong to evoke night: the café's and warm orange floor against and violet buildings. There is no black anywhere.
Perspective lines along the awning and street converge in the distance, drawing us into the scene. are short strokes of colour reflecting the lamplight.
The stars are dots and halos of varying sizes, larger and brighter than in reality, a treatment he would develop more wildly in The Starry Night.
Details
Symbolism
Earth and heaven
The warm, bright café stands for human company and comfort; the deep starry sky for the infinite and eternal. Van Gogh often linked the stars with the afterlife.
A hidden Last Supper?
Some researchers note that about twelve customers sit on the terrace around a long-haired in white, with a cross-shaped window frame behind him, and read it as an allusion to the Last Supper. The theory is imaginative but unproven.
Stories
- Did you know?
Van Gogh did not sign the painting, yet it is recognised as one of the most important works of his Arles period.
- Did you know?
Today visitors can sit outside the same café at night and compare the scene with the painting.
Legacy
Café Terrace at Night began Van Gogh's exploration of night and starry skies, leading directly to Starry Night Over the Rhône and The Starry Night. Its way of conveying night through colour rather than darkness deeply influenced Expressionism.
