Van Gogh's night paintings
Van Gogh painted the night like no one before him: without black, in the light of gas jets, on the motif. Du Night cafe from Arles to Cypress road from Saint-Rémy, five paintings tell the story of the same quest - to make darkness shine.
Paint at night... without using black
Van Gogh's night revolution can be summed up in one sentence: he refuses black. Instead, blues, greens, yellows and oranges that make the sky sparkle, gasbills tremble and the water of the Rhône vibrate. The night becomes a theater of color.
Between September 1888 and May 1890, he painted five large nocturnal canvases: The Night Café (infernal interior), the Coffee terrace in the evening (street scene), Starry Night on the Rhône (the river and the lovers), Starry Night (the Saint-Rémy whirlwind) and the Cypress road (the last sky of Provence). So many variations on the same challenge: capturing light in the dark.
The Night Café: a red and green hell
For three consecutive nights, in September 1888, Vincent painted the interior of the Café de la Gare, Place Lamartine, sleeping during the day. The result is one of his most intense paintings: a green ceiling, red walls, yellow lamps and, in the center, a billiards table that radiates.
His intention is clear, and he writes it to Théo: he wants to express "the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green". The café becomes "a place where you can ruin yourself, go crazy or commit a crime". Color is not realistic: it serves emotion.
"A color that is not locally true... but which suggests the emotion of a fiery temperament."Vincent to Théo, about the Café de nuit (1888)
The Terrace: a night without darkness
A few days later, at Place du Forum, Vincent sets up his easel in the open air after dark. Under the large yellow lantern on the terrace, drinkers come alive, the ground vibrates with purplish pink, and the sky is covered with stars against a background of deep blue. It is the first canvas where he dares a starry sky.
To his sister, he describes his method with obvious joy: here is "a nightcloth without black", nothing but "beautiful blues, purples and greens". He adds that a simple candle "gives the richest yellows and oranges alone". The lesson is learned: the night is painted in color.
Surprising detail: the position of the stars, studied by the historian Albert Boime, allows us to date the scene from around 11 o'clock in the evening, at the beginning of September 1888.
The Rhône: stars, gasbills and lovers
A stone's throw from the Yellow House, on the banks of the Rhône, Vincent installs his equipment under a gas burner. He paints the night sky, the constellations, and the reflections of the street lamps of Arles in the water. In the foreground, two lovers stroll.
To Théo, he details his colors: "The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is purple." A joyful symphony of blues and gold, where the Big Dipper sparkles "a discreet green and pink". The painting will be exhibited in Paris in 1889, alongside the Iris.
The detail amuses astronomers: the Big Dipper was not really visible in that direction. Vincent added it, merging real sky and dream sky.
Starry Night: the sky in whirlwind
A year later, at the Saint-Rémy asylum, Vincent transforms the night into a vision. Starry Night moma is no longer an observed scene but a reconstructed sky: spirals, halos, flaming cypress trees in the foreground. It's his most famous - and least "realistic" night.
Curiosity: the swirling patterns of Starry Night have been compared to Kolmogorov's statistical model of turbulence - as if Vincent had painted, by intuition, the dynamics of a fluid.
The Cypress Road: The Last Sky
In May 1890, just before leaving Saint-Rémy for Auvers, Vincent painted his last Provençal nocturne. A road, two travelers, a large central cypress tree that pierces the sky, an evening star on the left and a thin crescent moon on the right.
The cypress, he wrote to Theo, is "beautiful in line", proportioned "like an Egyptian obelisk". Several historians read there a meditation on death and eternity: the cypress as an "obelisk of death" between the declining star and the emerging crescent. To Gauguin, Vincent would later compare his themes to those of one Christ in the Garden of Olives.
"The cypress is as beautiful in line as an Egyptian obelisk."Vincent to Théo, about cypresses
Five paintings, two years
The Night Café, the Terrace and the Rhône are painted the same month.
Vincent describes his starry skies and attaches a sketch of the Rhône.
MoMA Starry Night: the sky becomes whirlwind.
Cypress and star route, the ultimate canvas of Saint-Rémy.
Five nights, five characters
| Canvas | Location/date | Collection | Character |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Night Café | Arles, Sept. 1888 | Yale University Art Gallery | Infernal interior, red and green. |
| Coffee terrace in the evening | Arles, Sept. 1888 | Kroeller-Müller Museum | Street scene, "night without black". |
| Starry Night (Rhône) | Arles, Sept. 1888 | Musée d'Orsay | Gas spouts and reflections on water. |
| Starry Night | Saint-Rémy, June 1889 | MoMA, New York | Spiral sky, reconstructed vision. |
| Cypress-Star Road | Saint-Rémy, May 1890 | Kroeller-Müller Museum | Meditation on death and eternity. |
Related articles on Van Gogh
Explore the Van Goghs
Starry Nights by Van Gogh
Starry skies, night on the Rhône, night roads.
See the collectionVan Gogh Cafes
Night café, terrace, café interiors.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Arles
Sunflowers, Room, coffee at night, orchards from 1888.
See the collectionVan Gogh self-portrait
Self-portraits from all periods.
See the collectionVan Gogh's wheat fields
Sowers, harvests, sheaves: working the land.
See the collectionVan Gogh Cypress
Cypress of the Alpilles and Saint-Rémy.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Starry night, cypresses, olive trees, irises from 1889.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Paris
Montmartre, Asnières, Parisian experiments.
See the collectionVan Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise
Church, fields, crows of the last months.
See the collectionVan Gogh Sunflowers
The Arles Sunflower Series.
See the collectionVan Gogh's night paintings
Why didn't Van Gogh paint the night black?
By aesthetic choice: he wanted to capture the "real" color of the night, which he saw made of blues, purples and yellows. A simple candle, he writes, gives "the richest yellows and oranges".
What are his most famous night paintings?
Five: The Night Café and there Coffee terrace (Arles, 1888), Starry Night on the Rhône (1888), Starry Night from MoMA (1889) and the Cypress road (1890).
Did he really paint at night, on the motif?
Yes. He set up his easel outside at night by the light of a gas burner or a lantern. For The Night Café, he worked three nights in a row, sleeping during the day.
What does the red and green of Café de nuit mean?
Vincent wanted to express "the terrible passions of humanity". The café becomes, in his words, a place where one can "break the bank, go crazy or commit a crime".
Where to see these paintings?
Yale University Art Gallery (Night Café), Kroeller-Müller Museum (Terrace and Cypress Road), Musée d'Orsay (Rhône) and MoMA in New York (Starry Night).
Is the Big Dipper well placed in the Starry Night on the Rhône?
No: it was not visible in the direction of the painting. Vincent added it, mixing observed sky and dreamed sky.
Do the reproductions restore these nocturnal nuances?
Van Gogh's paintings are in the public domain; a good hand-painted reproduction seeks to rediscover the deep blues and vibrant yellows of those nights.
How to paint darkness color
Van Gogh's night revolution is based on a precise technique. Refusing conventional black, he constructs darkness from complementary color relationships. Four principles guide this approach.
It replaces black with deep blues, purples and dark greens. The "night without black" becomes his manifesto, in the letter describing the Terrace.
Blue and orange, red and green: it poses opposite colors side by side which, to the eye, saturate and make the light sparkle.
Gas spouts, lanterns, lamps: night light sources burst into yellows and oranges, amplified by the cold surroundings.
He paints outside at night by the light of a gas burner. The inaccuracies of perception in the darkness nourish the colorful invention.
The Night cafe pushes logic to its climax: an interior saturated with red and green to express, says Vincent, "the terrible passions of humanity". Color no longer describes: it means.
"A simple candle alone gives the richest yellows and oranges."Vincent to his sister, about the Terrace (1888)
Go to texts
- Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam - collection.
- The Letters of Vincent van Gogh - Van Gogh Museum scholarly edition /Huygens ING.
- Wikipedia (en) - The Night Café, quotes from the letter to Theo (Sept. 1888).
- Wikipedia (en) - Café Terrace at Night, "black-free night" and astronomical dating.
- Wikipedia (en) - Starry Night Over the Rhône, letter to Théo and Big Dipper.
- Wikipedia (en) - The Starry Night, Saint-Rémy 1889.
- Wikipedia (en) - Road with Cypress and Star, last painting by Saint-Rémy.
- The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh Museum edition /Huygens ING.
- Wikimedia Commons - Starry Night on the Rhône, public domain.
- Wikimedia Commons - The Night Café, public domain.
Vincent van Gogh's works are in the public domain. Short quotes are taken from his letters (Van Gogh Museum edition). Reproductions come from Wikimedia Commons (public domain).
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