Van Gogh's Café Terrace at Night

A quick stop in the historic town of Arles allowed me the wondrous pleasure of visiting the café that inspired Vincent Van Gogh's painting Café Terrace at Night. It gave me pause to realize I was standing in the very space Van Gogh once occupied nearly 125 years ago, September of 1888; breathing the same air; taking in the velvety night sky and surrounding colors he brilliantly rendered and so often wrote about in letters to his brother Theo...

"... And in a picture I want to say something comforting, as music is comforting... So I am always between two currents of thought, first the material difficulties, turning round and round to make a living; and second, the study of colour. I am always in hope of making a discovery there,... to express hope by some star, the eagerness of a soul by a sunset radiance. Certainly there is no delusive realism in that, but isn't it something that actually exists?..."


* The café was remodeled in 1990/91 to appear similar to Van Gogh's painting; and appropriately enough, it is now called Café Van Gogh.