Explore the Night effects of this artwork, Café Terrace at Night.
When exhibited for the first time, in 1891, the painting was entitled Coffeehouse, in the evening (Café, le soir).
This is the first painting in which he used starry backgrounds; he went on to paint star-filled skies in Starry Night Over the Rhône (painted the same month), and the better known The Starry Night a year later. Van Gogh also painted a starlight background in Portrait of Eugène Boch.  Van Gogh mentioned the Cafe Terrace painting in a letter written to Eugène Boch on 2 October 1888, writing he had painted "a view of the café on place du Forum, where we used to go, painted at night" (emphasis van Gogh's).Van Gogh was careful to reflect the actual appearance of his skies and the position of the constellation Aquarius allowed Albert Boime to date the painting to early September 1888, at about 11:00 PM.
Eugène Boch Starry Night Over the Rhône The Starry Night Portrait of Eugène Boch Albert Boime