One of the most tragic celebrities in the world art history is Vincent Van Gogh. Though he was not very famous in his lifetime, he and his paintings got immense fame soon after his death-the time when he was no more to feel his fame! Today, his paintings are on peak demand and sold on record prices.

He painted a lot of night scene paintings in his lifetime. But his famous most painting on nightlife is Cafe Terrace at Night, which completed sometime around mid September 1888. This painting has a special charm in it. With that charm, the painting has a lot of interesting facts attached to it that we are discussing hereunder:

1. Van Gogh’s Cafe Terrace at Night is an ideal example of the artist’s imagination and superb dealing with light. This painting captures the colors of light at night. ‘Light’ and ‘night’ seem contradictory words as this combination is hardly found in any scene.

2. In this painting, artificial gas lanterns lighten the night sky with a glimpse of exterior of a Parisian cafe. The cafe is still there and has been a famous destination for all Gogh’s fans.

3. When this painting completed, Gogh wrote a letter to his sister mentioning that he has completed a night scene without using black.

4. Gogh painted this popular painting on the spot than painting it in daytime after preparing a sketch.

5. Though this painting is not signed by Gogh, his letters prove that this is his own work.

6. The painting is at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Netherlands now.

7. On its first official display in 1892, Coffee house in the evening was the name given to this painting. The title was later replaced by cafe Terrace at Night.

8. This is the first painting by Gogh with starry backgrounds.

Brief About The Painting

The painting represents the scene of night cafe. The terrace painted in this work has small figures of people drinking. A bright yellow lantern light up the terrace, frontage and side-walk. The rooftops of houses painted seem to have been a fading road under the blue sky with stars and a green tree nearby. This beautiful painting is trying to distinguish the usual darkness of night with this green and blue night, thus contradicting conventional night scenes.

Gogh has perseverance to propinquity and his keen ability to depict moment with so beautiful and bright colors made him one of the greatest colorist till date.

Article originally published at Source by Megha Batra