The night cafe
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| The night cafe |
|---|
| Vincent van Gogh , 1888 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 72 × 92 cm |
| Yale University Art Gallery |
The Night Cafe is an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh . It was made at the beginning of September 1888 and represents the interior of the Café de la Gare on Place Lamartine in Arles . It belongs to the Arles period of van Gogh. The reception of this work describes it as one of the masterpieces by van Gogh and one of his most famous works of all. The title of the picture is recorded in French under Van Gogh's signature in the lower right corner: le café de nuit .
Vincent van Gogh writes referring to this painting in a letter of September 8, 1888 to his brother Theo :
- “I tried to use red and green to express the terrible human passions. The room is blood red and dull yellow, a green billiard table in the middle, four lemon yellow lamps with orange and green circles of rays. Everywhere there is struggle and antithesis […] ” (Letter 533).
Overall, colors had a symbolic function for van Gogh and should also express moods.
Also in September 1888, van Gogh painted the painting Café terrace in the evening (French: terrace du café le soir ) in Arles .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Nathaniel Harris: The masterworks of Van Gogh , pp 167-168, Color Library Direct., 1999
- ↑ Alan Shestack (Editor), Yale University Art Gallery Selections , p 68-69.
- ↑ http://www.vggallery.com/painting/p_0463.htm
- ^ Letter from Vincent van Gogh to Theo van Gogh, Arles, September 8, 1888 .
- ↑ Vincent van Gogh - Complete Letters , Ed. Fritz Erpel, new translation by Eva Schumann, Henschel-Verlag, Berlin 1965/1968.