"Night Cafe Terrace" by Van Gogh. Light sleep at night

At the age of 27, Vincent van Gogh, fleeing from the depression that had engulfed him, turned to painting. In 1886, he moved to Paris, where he studied Japanese engraving and painting impressionists.

In the film "Night Cafe Terrace" Van Gogh expressednew impressions of southern France. The work depicts a cafe located in the area of ​​the city of Arles in September 1888. The cafe itself was restored in the 90s and painted yellow, which was not, apparently, during the life of Van Gogh, except for the yellow lighting at night. Subsequently, it will be renamed the "Van Gogh Cafe".

So it looks like today, more than a hundred years later.

The artist's intentions

His plan was described by Van Gogh in a letter to his sisterWilhelmine: "... The new picture represents the appearance of a night cafe. On the terrace there are small figures of drinkers. It is lit by a huge yellow lantern. He sheds light not only on the terrace, but also on the cobbled pavement, which absorbs the pink tint from the violet. The fronts of houses under the blue sky are filled with stars. And they themselves are not black, but cast in deep blue and purple tones. Next to it is a green tree. In this picture of the night there is no black. There are only beautiful blue, purple and green colors. In this yellow light, the lime of the surrounding houses is painted pale gray. It's extremely interesting and funny for me to paint a night there. I immediately understood how to approach the color. It is enough to take in the dark blue for green, instead of blue lilac with pink hues. This is the only way out of the darkness of the night. "

A new direction in creativity

The style of the picture "Night Cafe Terrace" isexclusive, very original for Van Gogh, as he first depicted the depth of perspective and used warm tones. This is the first work in which he portrayed the starry sky.

Then he repeated it in the movie "Starry Night onRhone ", and even later the background with the stars will appear in" Portrait of Eugene Boh ". The canvas "Night Cafe Terrace" enriched his style with lightness, airiness and humanity, although in it you can find something that resembles a night's sleep. The search for Van Gogh led to the creation of a new direction - post-impressionism.

Lighting

In the work "Night Cafe Terrace" twodominants: a cobalt-blue night sky with stars and a bright yellow light of a lantern illuminating the plane of the wall. It is not homogeneous. Lighting gives greenish and orange highlights on the wall and on the sidewalk of the cafe, on the cobbles next to the cafe and is repeated in the windows and windows of nearby houses, giving the impression of a warm southern night.

At the tables sit a lighted yellow lanternsmall figures of visitors in red and orange clothes. They are spelled out schematically, conditionally, since they are not predominant. They have no independent meaning. They just create a natural background. Like those people who walk down the street in colorful clothes. Very interesting coloristic solution of pavers. Here are the yellow reflections of the lantern, and the sirenovato-pink shades of the night sky. A green gleam of a nearby tree falls on the chair. And all together without a motley gives a complete picture of the night.

Sky

Separately it is necessary to tell about a deep night sky. It is filled with large golden stars, giving whitish light, which falls into some windows of houses.

The sky occupies a third of the picture "Night Cafe Terrace". Vincent Van Gogh wrote it in such a way that it's difficult to turn his eyes away from him. Its color is heterogeneous: at times it becomes dark blue, sometimes brightens. And only the stars, like large jewelry, sparkle on it. Its reflections lie on the upper floors of the walls with soft bluish and grayish colors, enriching the overall palette of the picture.

How does the new thing appear?

From an ordinary town, a simple street and a cafethe artist creates a different reality that exists in his imagination. "I often think that the night is richer in color than the day," Van Gogh wrote. "Night Cafe Terrace", the description of which is given above, differs in that the creative imagination of the creator of another world goes beyond the perception of an ordinary person who, walking every day along the street, can not notice anything new and poetic in it. To paraphrase Zabolotsky, we can say that the painter brings to the canvas "the signs of a changeable soul." In this case, it reflects the soul of the city and the night, without even setting such a goal. This is revealed "by accident", subconsciously. Every great artist has second and third plans in his creations, which unconsciously show him without his will. In this case, the inherent sharpness and tension of his confused consciousness left the artist, replaced by an almost childish softness and tenderness, mixed, however, with some fear.

The painting "The Night Cafe Terrace" (Van Gogh), painted in oil on canvas, is in the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo (The Netherlands).