Café Terrace at Night

Van Gogh painted Café Terrace at Night on the Place du Forum in Arles in September 1888, becoming one of the first artists to use an outdoor nocturnal scene without black paint. He wrote to his sister Wil that he had worked three nights in a row on it under gaslight in the square, fascinated by the problem of painting light in darkness. The contrast between the warm gold of the terrace and the deep blue of the street and sky became one of his defining solutions to nocturnal colour. The motif was influenced by his reading of Daudet's Tartarin de Tarascon and his love of Provence's night sky, which he called 'richer in colour than the daytime.'

Cobalt blue and prussian blue dominate the street and sky, set against cadmium yellow in the lighted terrace. Stars are rendered as impasto spikes of white and pale yellow. The perspective is steep, pulling the viewer into the space. Brushwork varies from short dabs in the sky to longer strokes on the paving stones.