“The Night Café” by Vincent van Gogh

“The Night Café” by Vincent van Gogh depicts the interior of Café de la Gare in Arles. Five customers are sitting at tables, and a waiter in a light coat is standing and facing the viewer.

A half-curtained doorway in the center background is leading to the private quarters. The title of this painting is inscribed lower right beneath the signature.

In highly contrasting and vivid colors, the paint is applied thickly, with the perspective leading toward the door in the back.

Van Gogh stayed up for three consecutive nights to paint the picture, sleeping during the day. Van Gogh wrote to his brother about the Café:

“… staying open all night. “Night prowlers” can take refuge there when they have no money to pay for lodging or are too drunk to be taken in.”

Van Gogh depicted very few café scenes, but his most famous is “Cafe Terrace at Night,” showing outdoor tables, a street scene, and the night sky, which was also painted in Arles at about the same period in his life.

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. Van Gogh was unsuccessful during his lifetime and was considered a madman and a failure.

He created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of them in the last two years of his life.

They were characterized by bold colors and dramatic, impulsive, and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art.

The Night Cafe

Title: The Night Café
French: Le Café de Nuit
Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Year: 1888
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions 72.4 × 92.1 cm (28.5 × 36.3 in)
Museum: Yale University Art Gallery

Vincent van Gogh

Name: Vincent Willem van Gogh
Born: 1853 – Zundert, Netherlands
Died: 1890 (aged 37) – Auvers-Sur-Oise, France
Resting place: Cimetière d’Auvers-Sur-Oise, Auvers-Sur-Oise, France
Nationality: Dutch
Movement: Post-Impressionism
Notable works:
- Starry Night
- Starry Night Over the Rhône
- Sunflowers
- Irises (Getty Museum)
- Self Portrait, dedicated to Paul Gauguin
- Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin
- White House at Night
- The Night Café
- Self-Portrait as a Painter
- Self Portrait with Felt Hat
- Green Wheat Field with Cypress
- The Raising of Lazarus
- Self-Portrait’ Mutilated Ear
- Café Terrace at Night
- Tarascon Stagecoach
- Wheatfield with Crows
- Bedroom in Arles
- Portrait of the Artist’s Mother
- Vase with Red Poppies
- Memory of the Garden at Etten
- Great Peacock Moth
- Farmhouse in Provence
- Agostina Segatori Sitting in the Café du Tambourin
- Fishing Boats on the Beach at Saintes-Maries
- Seascape at Saintes-Maries
- Girl in White
- Young Peasant Woman with Straw Hat Sitting in the Wheat
- Van Gogh’s Chair
- Gauguin’s Chair
- Road with Cypress and Star
- Almond Blossoms
- The Church at Auvers
- The Yellow House
- Portrait of Père Tanguy
- Portrait of Doctor Félix Rey
- Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background
- The Red Vineyard
- View of Vessenots Near Auvers

Vincent van Gogh’s Night Cafe, 1888

Vincent van Gogh – The Night Cafe (1888)

Facts about Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands
Initially, van Gogh planned to be a pastor and worked as a lay preacher in Belgium. It was only on being let go from this job that he decided that his future lay in painting.
Van Gogh didn’t start painting until he was 27 years old.
Van Gogh never received any formal art training.
Van Gogh’s brother, Theo, worked in an art gallery and introduced van Gogh to many artworks.
Van Gogh visited many parts of Europe, including the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and England.
Japanese woodblock prints profoundly influenced Van Gogh. He collected pictures of Japanese woodblock prints, and he practiced making copies.
Van Gogh had several close relationships with many fellow artists, including Paul Gaugin and Emile Bernard.
Van Gogh’s artistic career was only ten years.
Van Gogh was a prolific letter writer, especially to his brother.
He created over 900 paintings plus many more drawings and sketches.
He died at the age of 37
As a poor artist, van Gogh didn’t have money to pay for models, so he painted himself instead. He created hundreds of self-portraits.
Van Gogh considered himself and many of his paintings to be failures.
Van Gogh cut off his ear in 1888.
Experts believe that that Gaugin cut off Van Gogh’s ear, following a violent dispute and that they both conspired to blame it on van Gogh so that Gaugin would not be jailed.
Van Gogh wrapped up his removed ear and gave it to a prostitute in a nearby brothel.
Van Gogh suffered mental health challenges for many years, and in 1889 he voluntarily admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy.
Van Gogh spent a year in the hospital, from which he created some of his most well-known paintings.
Van Gogh spent his adult life in poverty, surviving on cheap food. His diet consisted mainly of bread and coffee; he drank alcohol excessively and always had his pipe in hand.
After leaving the asylum, Van Gogh’s mental health continued to deteriorate, and in 1890, he shot himself in the chest. He died two days later.
There is speculation that Van Gogh did not shoot himself but that he was shot in a prank that went wrong. Van Gogh protected the identity of who shot him, by claiming that he shot himself.
Only 37 years old when he died, he had just sold one painting in his lifetime.
On his deathbed, van Gogh’s last words to his brother were, “the sadness will last forever.”
Van Gogh’s brother died very soon after Van Gogh’s death.

The Night Cafe – An Immersive VR Tribute to Vincent van Gogh

The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh – Oculus Rift

Cafe Terrace at Night by Vincent Van Gogh

Highlights of the Yale University Art Gallery

“The Night Café” by Vincent van Gogh
“The Capture of the Hessians at Trenton, December 26, 1776″ by John Trumbull
John Trumbull – Self-Portrait by John Trumbull
“The Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776″ by John Trumbull
“The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777″ by John Trumbull

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“The best way to know God is to love many things.”
– Vincent van Gogh

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Photo Credit: 1) Vincent van Gogh [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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