The Night Café

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.