Le café de nuit (The Night Café)

Le Café de nuit (The Night Café), painted in 1888 in Arles, is one of Vincent van Gogh’s most emotionally charged interiors. The scene depicts a nearly empty café late at night, with glowing gas lamps casting an eerie yellow-green light over red walls, wooden furniture, and weary patrons slumped at tables.

Van Gogh used bold, clashing colors and distorted perspective to evoke the oppressive atmosphere of the space, which he described as a place “where one can ruin oneself, go mad, or commit a crime.” Unlike traditional depictions of social settings, The Night Café is not inviting but unsettling—a powerful expression of isolation, tension, and the emotional undercurrents of modern life.