VINCENT VAN GOGH

POST IMPRESSIONISM

(c.1885-1905

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-90)
'Café Terrace at Night', 1888 (oil on canvas)

The son of a pastor, brought up in a religious and cultured atmosphere, Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence. Between 1860 and 1880, when he finally decided to become an artist, van Gogh had had two unsuitable and unhappy romances and had worked unsuccessfully as a clerk in a bookstore, an art salesman, and a preacher in the Borinage (a dreary mining district in Belgium), where he was dismissed for overzealousness.

This art represents a restaurant in downtown at night. The painting illustrates that people had a normal life like ours.For instance, people were hanging out, having a diner in a bar specially at night and probably after work. In addition, it shows how the  city was clean. However, if this art is only an expression of Vincent that did not represent a real life of people at the time, Germans or Europeans would have reasons to be upset. Therefore, there was a confusion of what people were living in and what was reported.