Van Gogh dreams of a better tomorrow

The roof of a café in the evening

(The roof of a café in the evening) is the title of one of the paintings of the Dutch artist (Van Gogh), which was painted in oil colors on canvas between 9 and 16 September 1888 on a quiet summer evening in Arles, France.

 The café that still exists today was called (La Terrasse), its name was later changed to (Van Gogh Café). He drew this painting at night and directly from a side view angle, to allow him to see the depth of the scene well and be able to include many details to enrich his painting. The stone street floor reflects many blue, yellow, pink and violet touches. The sky is clear and is a starry night over the Rhone. The contrast between yellow and orange on the walls comes from the lamp light and the blue of the sky and the façades is a contrast between the main and complementary color, especially since Van Gogh loves to exaggerate the color, this gives a kind of surrealism and almost tampering with the painting. As this leads us to the depth of the scene dominated by darkness that comes directly behind the drawn characters, the horizon line is relatively low, and the sky occupies a large part of the photographic space.

 The café to the left is mostly yellow, dominated by the sky, and a group of passers-by are on the right, where the predominant color is blue. There is a contrast between the colors or what is known as a contradiction of space. We see that the painting is divided into several color regions that contrast violently and contrast strongly. This gives the impression that the artist seeks to represent a world that exists in another dimension or, in other words, beyond reality. Van Gogh is the master of contradiction. Floor with carved stone just a few touches of color. They reflect the light coming from the café and the blue sky that is as if you are walking between sadness and ecstasy, birth and death, inside a confusing mystery that is not clear to us. These black-surrounded stones are a technique that will be used later in abstract art, so we find it in a painting of Paul Kelly, and to give movement to the work, figures were painted in a way Inaccurate, we got used to seeing it in his work. In the background, the stars were golden points on a clear sky, as if they were from flowers, this method of simplifying the drawing of the stars helped to impart prestige and idealization of the sky, as if he was praying to his Creator, all under the influence of light that comes mainly from the gas lamp in the cafe is not just An ordinary light that enlightens those sitting there, but a light that Van Gogh seeks for his blackened path of life.

 It is a mixed life between illness, sadness and want, sometimes and happy with the money of his brother Theodore that he sends to him sometimes ... Now the colors remained for him to feel as he had never felt before, for it was a contradiction between the basic and complementary colors, contrasting with his life that he lives. The scene, in its reality, is calm and ordinary from everyday life, but at the same time it is also quite variable, here as if Van Gogh has reached an unknown level of perception. It is explained that the artist has reached the height of emotional ecstasy and sense of place, as he said one day: "The only time that I feel alive is when I am painting." Take a walk at night, bring a chevalier and a crayon or a camera and go there you'll never see a café on the way in these colors. So where did these colors come from? Does it really represent the artist? These questions lead us to research the life of a painter who escaped from the dire reality that he was living and his difficult psychological state. He translated them into color emotions and movements that make him "alive", as he said. In the end Van Gogh did not offer us a café, he wanted to show us, a wonderful astonishment, hoping in it for a better morning after this night. You are alive in the hearts of millions. 

You have gone poor, thin and dumped in the hospital of insane people in need of a loaf of bread, but you left behind an invaluable art today, it is really a human touch that emanated from within the hardships of many, it is today taught in institutes and universities.

 

Abdelilah Boubchir, artist painter , owner of chic boost