The Night Cafe, Vincent Van Gogh

This is the Café de la Garre, the late-night café frequented by Vincent and Gauguin, where they whiled away the evening in heated, absinthe-fueled debate.

Van Gogh said this interior that he wanted to ‘express the terrible passions of humanity in red and green.’  Velvety scarlets, oppressive yellows, and leering greens are used to draw us into the hedonic, potentially ruinous world of the Night Café.

In contrast, Vincent’s Café Terrace at Night, though concerned with a similar subject, is far more optimistic and generous in tone.  Here, Vincent wanted to capture ‘night without black,’ and instead uses soft blues to invite us into the pleasures of relaxing on a cobbled Mediterranean street, enjoying a long, balmy night.