Van Gogh's The Night Café (1888): The Painting He Called One of His Ugliest
The Night Café is a painting Vincent van Gogh made in Arles in September 1888. It shows the inside of an all-night café near the station, painted in clashing red and green under glaring gas lamps. Van Gogh wrote that he wanted to show the café as a place where one could ruin oneself, go mad or commit a crime.
What does The Night Café show?
We look into a long room at about midnight. A billiard table stands in the middle, its green cloth throwing a dark shadow on the floor. Four gas lamps hang from the ceiling, each wrapped in a ring of yellow and orange light. Along the walls a few drinkers sit hunched at tables; one couple leans close in a corner. The owner, in a white coat, stands beside the table and stares out at us. At the back, a doorway opens onto a brighter, private room behind a curtain. Nothing much is happening, and that emptiness is the point.
Why did Van Gogh paint it?
Van Gogh had moved to Arles in the south of France in February 1888, hoping to found a community of artists. He rented rooms above this café, the Café de la Gare on the Place Lamartine, before moving into the Yellow House nearby. The café stayed open all night, so it was a refuge for travellers and for people with nowhere else to go. Van Gogh, short of money, painted it partly to pay off his debt to the owner, Joseph Ginoux. He slept by day and worked for three nights in the room itself to catch it under its lamps.
What do the red and green mean?
In a letter to his brother Theo, Van Gogh said he had tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green. The two colours sit opposite each other on the colour wheel, so placed side by side they vibrate and fight. He used a blood red on the walls, a sour green on the ceiling, a yellow-green on the floor boards and touches of orange and blue. The effect is meant to feel hot, airless and slightly sick. He even called it one of the ugliest pictures he had done, which for him meant one of the most honest.
How is it different from the Café Terrace at Night?
In the same month Van Gogh painted another café, the outdoor terrace on the Place du Forum, under a starry sky. That picture is warm and inviting: yellow light, blue night, people chatting at tables. The Night Café is its dark twin, an indoor room with no sky and no escape. Seen together they show how freely Van Gogh used colour for feeling rather than description. The same September he also painted the stars over the Rhône, a first step towards The Starry Night. A month later he painted his bedroom in the Yellow House, where he wanted colour to suggest perfect rest.
How should you look at it?
Start with the floor: the steep perspective tilts it up towards you, as if the room is sliding.
Then look at the lamps: each halo is made of short circular strokes, not smooth light.
Find the clock above the door, showing just after midnight.
End with the owner, the only figure who looks back at you.
This sense of unease, painted through colour and line, is one of the things that makes Van Gogh a key figure of Post-Impressionism and an early voice of Expressionism.
Where does it work as wall art?
For a picture about loneliness, The Night Café is surprisingly popular on walls. Its rich red and green suit a bar corner, a games room with a billiard or pool table, or a dark, moody living room. Café and restaurant owners like it as a nod to the long history of night-time gathering places, as in our list of wall art for local cafés.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the café in Van Gogh's The Night Café?
It was the Café de la Gare on the Place Lamartine in Arles, in the south of France, near the railway station.
Why did Van Gogh use red and green in The Night Café?
He said he wanted to express the terrible passions of humanity. Red and green are complementary colours that clash when placed side by side.
When did Van Gogh paint The Night Café?
In early September 1888, working through three nights in the café.
Is The Night Café the same as Café Terrace at Night?
No. Café Terrace at Night shows an outdoor café under the stars. The Night Café shows the inside of a different, all-night café.
If a room needs colour with some drama in it, The Night Café is available as a classic art print for a bar wall, games room or moody living room.
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