Café Terrace at Night
Vincent van Gogh · 1888
Oil on canvas
Quick answer
Café Terrace at Night (1888) by Vincent van Gogh is in Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo. Café Terrace at Night is an oil painting by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh, created in September 1888 in Arles, southern France. It depicts the Café de la Gare on the Place du Forum in Arles, with its awning lit by gas lamps and diners seated outside on a starry night. The painting was the first of Van Gogh's works to depict a night scene without black — he used deep blues and purples for the night sky and contrasted them with golden yellows for the café lights. It is at the Kröller-Müller Museum in the Netherlands. World Museum Guide explains what you're looking at and how to see it.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Café Terrace at Night?
The painting is at the Kröller-Müller Museum, located within the Hoge Veluwe National Park near the village of Otterlo in the Netherlands. The museum holds one of the world's largest Van Gogh collections (87 paintings) — second only to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The museum is at Houtkampweg 6, 6731 AW Otterlo.
Does the café in Café Terrace at Night still exist?
Yes — the Café de la Gare on the Place du Forum in Arles, depicted in the painting, is now called the Café Van Gogh. It has painted its exterior in the same yellow and green colours as Van Gogh's painting, making it a tourist attraction in its own right. The Place du Forum in Arles, a small square in the city centre, is easily found and visitors can sit at the outdoor tables as the figures in the painting do.
Why did Van Gogh use no black in Café Terrace at Night?
Van Gogh deliberately avoided using black for the night sky, stating: 'The night is more alive and more richly coloured than the day.' He used deep blues and prussian greens for darkness, bright warm yellows and oranges for the artificial light. He believed black was a non-colour that deadened a painting — all shadow and darkness could be expressed through colour. This radical approach to nocturnal painting directly influenced Fauvism and Expressionism.
What does Café Terrace at Night depict?
The painting shows the terrace of the Café de la Gare on the Place du Forum in Arles at night. The café's awning glows golden under gas lamps. Customers sit at tables on the pavement. The cobbled street leads away into the blue night, with figures visible in the distance and stars in the sky. The contrast between the warm, golden café interior and the cool blue-purple of the surrounding night is the compositional and colouristic centre of the work.
Is Café Terrace at Night part of a Last Supper composition?
Some art historians have proposed that the composition — 12 figures around the lighted café (Christ-figure possibly the café worker at centre) — echoes The Last Supper. Van Gogh was raised in a Protestant household and made frequent biblical references in his correspondence. He did write that he wanted to 'express something comforting as music is comforting' through night painting. Whether the Last Supper parallel was intentional is debated.