The Night Café

Infobox Painting|

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title=The Night Café
artist=Vincent van Gogh
year=1888
type=Oil on canvas
height= 72.4
width= 92.1
museum=Yale University Art Gallery

"The Night Café" (original French title: "Le Café de nuit") is an oil painting executed on industrial primed canvas of size 30 (French standard) in Arles in September 1888, by Vincent van Gogh. Its title is inscribed lower right beneath the signature.

The interieur depicted is the "Café de la Gare", 30 Place Lamartine, run by Joseph-Michel and his wife Marie Ginoux, who in November 1888 posed for Van Gogh's and Gauguin's "Arlésienne"; a bit later, Joseph Ginoux evidently posed for both artists, too.

Genesis

Already in August Van Gogh told his brother Theo:

:'Today I am probably going to begin on the interior of the café where I have a room, by gas light, in the evening. It is what they call here a “café de nuit” (they are fairly frequent here), staying open all night. “Night prowlers” can take refuge there when they have no money to pay for a lodging, or are too drunk to be taken in.' [ Letter [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/518.htm 518] ] In the first days of September 1888, Van Gogh sat up for three consecutive nights to paint the picture, sleeping during the day. [Letter [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/533.htm 533] ] Little later, he sent the water-colour, copying the composition and again simplyfing the colour scheme on order to meet the simplicity of Japanese woodblock prints.

Colour suggestive of emotion

Van Gogh wrote many letters to his brother Theo van Gogh, and often included details of his latest work. In one of the letters [Letter [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/533.htm 533] ] he describes this painting: Soon after its execution, Van Gogh incorporated this painting into his Décoration for the Yellow House. [See Letters [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/544.htm 544] , [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/B18.htm B18] , [http://webexhibits.org/vangogh/letter/18/552.htm 552] ]

Gauguin's competition piece

Soon after his arrival in Arles, Paul Gauguin painted the same location, as a background to his portrait of Madame Ginoux. [See L'Arlésienne for details] It was also acquired by Ivan Morozov and now hangs in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.Fact|date=October 2007

Pedigree

The painting, formerly a highlight of the Ivan Morozov collection in Moscow, was sold by the Soviet authorities in the 1930s. Via Wildenstein the painting was acquired by Stephen Carlton Clark who bequeathed it to the art gallery of Yale University.

Notes

References

* Dorn, Roland: "Décoration: Vincent van Gogh's Werkreihe für das Gelbe Haus in Arles", Georg Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich & New York 1990, pp. 370-375 ISBN 3-487-09098-8 / ISSN 0175-9558

ee also

* Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings