Where Is The Night Café? Museum Location

Q: Where can I see The Night Café?

It's at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. Van Gogh painted it in September 1888 in Arles. It depicts the Café de la Gare, where he rented a room.

Q: What was Van Gogh trying to express?

He wrote to his brother Theo that he wanted to express 'the terrible passions of humanity' using red and green. He said the café was 'a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime.' The clashing colors and distorted perspective create a feeling of anxiety and disorientation.

Q: Why are the colors so intense?

Van Gogh deliberately used clashing complementary colors: blood-red walls against green ceiling, yellow gaslight halos against dark shadows. He wanted the colors themselves to convey emotion. The garish palette makes the scene feel feverish and oppressive.

Q: How big is The Night Café?

It measures 72.4 cm × 92.1 cm (28.5 × 36.3 inches). Van Gogh painted it over three nights, working at the café from evening until dawn. The exaggerated perspective pulls the viewer's eye sharply toward the back room, creating a disorienting, tunnel-like effect.

Q: What style is this?

It's Post-Impressionist, pushing toward Expressionism. Van Gogh used color and distorted space to express psychological states rather than describe physical reality. This emotional use of color directly influenced Fauvism and German Expressionism.

Finished in 1888 by Vincent van Gogh, scene in September 1888, capturing the interior of the Café de la Gare in Arles, France, where he sometimes rented a room. The space glows under gas lamps, their light creating halos of yellow and green. A billiard table dominates the center while a few late-night patrons slump at tables along the walls.

Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo that he wanted to express "the terrible passions of humanity" through red and green. The clashing colors were deliberate, meant to convey the atmosphere of a place where people ruined themselves, went mad, or committed crimes. The distorted perspective and lurid palette create a sense of unease.

The painting now hangs at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut, a gift from the estate of collector Stephen Carlton Clark in 1961.

It's at the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, Connecticut. Van Gogh painted it in September 1888 in Arles. It depicts the Café de la Gare, where he rented a room.

He wrote to his brother Theo that he wanted to express 'the terrible passions of humanity' using red and green. He said the café was 'a place where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime.' The clashing colors and distorted perspective create a feeling of anxiety and disorientation.

Van Gogh deliberately used clashing complementary colors: blood-red walls against green ceiling, yellow gaslight halos against dark shadows. He wanted the colors themselves to convey emotion. The garish palette makes the scene feel feverish and oppressive.

It measures 72.4 cm × 92.1 cm (28.5 × 36.3 inches). Van Gogh painted it over three nights, working at the café from evening until dawn. The exaggerated perspective pulls the viewer's eye sharply toward the back room, creating a disorienting, tunnel-like effect.

It's Post-Impressionist, pushing toward Expressionism. Van Gogh used color and distorted space to express psychological states rather than describe physical reality. This emotional use of color directly influenced Fauvism and German Expressionism.

The Night Café

Details

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Vincent van Gogh

“Au Charbonnage” Café

A Zandmennik house

The Goat Herd

Old Woman Asleep after Rops

Also at Yale University Art Gallery

Madonna and Child

Game of Croquet

Mystic Marriage of St Catherine

Related Post-Impressionism Works

When Will You Marry?

The Yellow Christ

The Basket of Apples

The Card Players

Moulin Rouge: La Goulue

Still Life with Apples

Jane Avril

Arearea (Joyousness)

About The Night Café

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