밤의 카페 테라스

Van Gogh painted this on the spot in Arles, in the south of France, over a few nights in mid-September 1888. He was newly arrived in the town and full of an idea that had been nagging at him, that night did not have to be painted in browns and blacks. He wrote to his sister that here was a picture of night with no black in it at all, only blue and violet and green, with the lit terrace glowing pale sulphur and lemon. And there, above the rooftops, he put in a sky full of stars. It is the first time those stars appear in his work, months before the famous swirling Starry Night. The café itself was real. It still stands on the Place du Forum in Arles, repainted yellow to match the canvas and renamed after him, so you can sit roughly where he set up his easel. He worked outdoors after dark by gaslight to get the colours true. Some viewers have counted the figures under the awning and the shape of the doorway behind them and read a quiet echo of the Last Supper into the scene, though Van Gogh never said any such thing.