NIght Cafe Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

Description of Vincent van Gogh’s painting "Night Café"

The painting Night Café was painted by the artists in September 1888.

For three nights Vincent van Gogh visited a station café in the city of Arles in the south of France, observing night-time patrons aimlessly spending their time drinking.

The blurred lines, sloppy brushstrokes, and blurred faces of the cafe’s patrons suggest the author’s desire to convey the state of an unsober person.

The interior of the room is filled with a mass of nuances which, contrasting with each other, convey the depressive state of the artist. The green color of the ceiling speaks more of a sense of morbidity exacerbated by the disturbing red walls, and the abundance of warm tones of yellow adds to the stuffy and smoky atmosphere of the place. An abandoned billiard table, a large number of bottles and empty glasses on vacant tables further emphasize the abandonment and unnecessaryness.

The night time is emphasized by the clock which shows that it is well past midnight, the night landscape in the window, four brightly lit lamps and a lingering couple at the corner table at the entrance.

A drowsy visitor and two people who have been drinking heavily add to the oppressive impression. And the effect is completed by a visitor in a yellow suit looking either directly at the artist or directly into the viewer’s eyes.

The artist wrote to his brother Theo that in this painting he was trying to convey a setting and a pernicious passion in which the self-destruction of man, where he goes mad or becomes a criminal.

This painting was critically acclaimed and was hailed as one of Van Gogh’s masterpieces. It later gave birth to a new style - expressionism.

The artist would later repeat it in watercolor.

Today, the painting Night Café is kept in the Yale University Art Gallery.