Café Terrace at Night

Vincent van Gogh

Oil on canvas

Kröller-Müller Museum

Painted on location in mid-September 1888 at the Place du Forum in Arles, southern France, Café Terrace at Night depicts a gas-lit outdoor café terrace at night, with patrons seated beneath a large yellow awning, a cobblestone street receding into shadow, and a deep blue sky punctuated by luminous stars. Van Gogh executed the work in situ and in darkness—an unconventional practice—aiming to capture colors as they truly appeared by night rather than reconstructing them from daytime memory. The composition is defined by a striking chromatic contrast between the warm golden-yellow glow of the lantern-lit terrace and the cool deep blues and violets of the surrounding buildings and sky, with no use of black. Widely regarded as one of the supreme achievements of Post-Impressionism, it was the first work in which Van Gogh introduced his iconic star-filled night sky, anticipating the nocturnal masterpieces that would follow.