THE NIGHT CAFE

The Night Café by Vincent van Gogh (original French title: Le Café de nuit) is an oil painting executed on industrial primed canvas of size 30 (French standard). Vincent did the painting during September 1888, in Arles, France.

The painting depicts the interior of the Café de la Gare, at 30 Place Lamartine. The cafe was run by Joseph-Michel and wife Marie Ginoux. A black and white clock shows the time at almost a quarter past midnight. It is interesting to note that Vincent wrote to his brother Theo on more than one occasion about the painting, The Night Café.

The The Night Café shows us the use of what Van Gogh termed called "suggestive colour", later he called it "arbitrary colour". The painting shows us a stark contrast between a vivid billiard table and that of lonely isolated people on the surrounding tables. Vincent seemed to want to show us humanity with all its emotions as possible. "I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green," van Gogh wrote. Van Gogh inscribed the title of the painting underneath his signature. Van Gogh actually used the painting to settle his debts with his landlord.


The Night Café in the Place Lamartine in Arles, c.1888
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Vincent Gogh