NAVIGATIONALL ARTISTS
Café
Terrace at Night or The Café Terrace on the Place du Forum.
Vincent van Gogh. Arles, France 1888.
Shortly after a stay in Paris where van Gogh came into contact with Impressionism and artists like Toulouse-Lautrec and Edgar Degas, he moved to Arles. Arles had already inspired his contemporaries Gauguin and Cezanne and its effect on van Gogh was no different. While in Arles he created over 200 pieces and wrote over 200 letters. It was the most prolific period in his life. Though his earlier pieces tended to be somber and use more earth tones, his Arles work was full of color. An absolutely beautiful piece of work, Café Terrace is the first painting in which van Gogh used a starry background – the most famous of which being “Starry Night”.
Van Gogh was especially impressed with this because he painted it on the spot rather than waiting for daytime. He wrote to his sister about the painting shortly after its completion. “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. It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. Normally, one draws and paints the painting during the daytime after the sketch. But I like to paint the thing immediately.”
Purchase a print of van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Arles at Night
I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored
than the day. - Vincent van Gogh