Vincent Van Gogh: Cafe Terrace at Night

The Cafe Terrace at Night (French: Terrasse du café le soir or sometimes Café Terrace on the Place du Forum) is a painting by Vincent van Gogh, painted during September 1888 in Arles, France. Van Gogh painted Cafe Terrace as oil on canvas, having the dimensions of 81 cm × 65.5 cm. Currently it can be seen in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (the Netherlands).

Though Café Terrace is not signed by van Gogh, Vincent mentioned it in several letters, thus ownership has never been a matter for discussions. Vincent described the painting in a letter to his sister Wilhelmina:

“On the terrace there are small figures of people drinking. An immense yellow lantern illuminates the terrace, the facade, the side walk and even casts light on the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone. The gables of the houses, like a fading road below a blue sky studded with stars, are dark blue or violet with a green tree. Here you have a night painting without black, with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green and in this surrounding the illuminated area colours itself sulfur pale yellow and citron green.”

In the same letter, van Gogh stressed again, how much he liked to paint at night. While the usual way to paint a nocturnal scene was to paint during day time he preferred to paint immediately. „It is the only way to get away from our conventional night with poor pale whitish light, while even a simple candle already provides us with the richest of yellows and oranges”, as he explained in the same letter.

This painting should not be confused with Night Cafe (Cafe de Nuit).