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Cafe Terrace at Night reproduction: the painting with no black in it

Van Gogh painted the Arles terrace outdoors at night with no black on the palette. That is the one thing cheap copies get wrong. Sizes, prices, checks.

Oil Painting ReproductionsUpdated

Van Gogh's Cafe Terrace at Night: a yellow gas-lit terrace on the left, a blue starry street receding on the right.
Vincent van Gogh, Terrace of a Cafe at Night (Place du Forum), September 1888. Oil on canvas, 80.7 × 65.3 cm. Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo. Wikimedia Commons, public domain

The short answer

Van Gogh painted this on the spot in Arles, at night, and used no black at all: the darks are deep blue and violet. Copies that reach for black outlines lose the picture. The original is 80.7 × 65.3 cm, at the Kroller-Muller Museum.

The painting in numbers

What a copyist has to match.
The originalWhat it means for a reproduction
YearSeptember 1888, painted outdoors at night in ArlesVan Gogh died in 1890; the picture is public domain everywhere.
Where it isKroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo, NetherlandsIn 2026 the canvas was on loan to a Van Gogh exhibition in Japan; the museum lists it as back on display from 15 September 2026.
MediumOil on canvasDirectly copyable in the same materials.
Original size80.7 × 65.3 cm (31.8 × 25.7 in)Almost exactly a 30 × 24 in stock canvas.
Aspect ratio1.24 : 1, portraitA 24 × 30 in canvas is 1.25:1, the closest match of any common size.
Common reproduction sizes20 × 16 in, 24 × 30 in, 30 × 40 in, 36 × 48 inThe three larger ones are 1.25:1 or 1.33:1; the 1.33 sizes crop the sky or the pavement.

Dimensions and loan status from the Kroller-Muller Museum's page for the painting, checked 2026-09-05.

Why it is hard to reproduce

Van Gogh set out to paint a night scene without using black, and wrote that an abundance of gaslight, being yellow and orange, intensifies blue. The whole picture is that one experiment: a warm field and a cool field pressed against each other with no neutral between them. As soon as a copyist introduces black, grey or navy, the two fields stop pushing against each other and the terrace stops glowing.

Detail of Cafe Terrace at Night showing the yellow awning edge against the blue-violet facade, with a star in the top corner.
Detail at the edge of the awning. The dark facade is blue and violet, not black, and the awning shifts from green-yellow to orange across its length. Wikimedia Commons, public domain
  • No black. Every dark in the picture is a saturated blue, violet or deep green. Mixing those darks takes longer than reaching for black, and the difference is invisible in a small photograph and obvious on the wall.
  • The awning is not one yellow. It runs green-yellow at the far end, lemon under the lamp and orange at the near edge. Copies that use a single yellow turn it into a plastic sheet.
  • Two perspectives at once. The terrace recedes to the left and the street to the right, on a cobbled pavement drawn as separated strokes. Get the cobble rhythm wrong and the floor tilts.
  • Painted at night, from life. The colour relationships are what Van Gogh saw under gaslight, not what a camera records. A copy made from a screen at daylight white balance drifts cold.

What cheap copies get wrong

The commonest fault is a black outline around the awning and the window frames, added because it makes the shapes read quickly from a distance. It is the one thing the painting refuses. The second is a navy sky: the original sky is a blue-violet lit from within, and navy makes it a backdrop.

  1. Black used for the facade, the doorways and the figures' clothing.
  2. The awning painted in a single yellow rather than a gradient of three.
  3. Stars turned into even white dots. In the original they are small yellow-green haloes on a violet ground, and they vary in size.
  4. The pavement flattened into a wash, losing the separated strokes that make it recede.
  5. The composition squeezed onto a 1.33:1 canvas, which cuts either the top of the sky or the foreground cobbles.

Sizes and where it hangs well

Scale diagram comparing the 65 by 81 cm original of Cafe Terrace at Night with 24 by 30 inch and 36 by 48 inch reproductions above a 200 cm sofa.
The original is close to a 24 × 30 in canvas. The 36 × 48 in size is more than twice its height. Oil Painting Reproductions

This is a portrait-format picture with strong vertical architecture, so it suits a narrow wall, a chimney breast or the space between two windows, and it fights a wide sofa. It is also a night painting, which means the room's own lighting is part of the deal: under a warm bulb the blue deepens and the terrace glows, under cool white LED the yellow goes acid. If the wall has a picture light, use a warm one.

Price range

Portrait sizes for this composition, unframed, USD.
SizeArt & See list priceVs the originalNote
20 × 16 in (51 × 41 cm)$299.95About 60% of the heightToo small for the cobbles to read.
24 × 20 in (61 × 51 cm)$359.95About 75%Workable; ratio 1.2:1.
30 × 24 in (76 × 61 cm)$430.95About 95%, ratio 1.25:1The closest common size to the museum canvas.
40 × 30 in (102 × 76 cm)$529.95125%The size most buyers choose for a chimney breast.
48 × 36 in (122 × 91 cm)$599.95150%, ratio 1.33:1Crops the composition; ask which edge is lost.

Art & See prices from its published unframed rectangular ladder, verified 2026-09-05. overstockArt listed the same subject at $109 for 8 × 10 in, $159 for 16 × 20 in, $179 for 20 × 24 in, $249 for 24 × 36 in, $299 for 30 × 40 in and $349 for 36 × 48 in on the same date. The Art & See ladder continues past this table to $769.95 at 60 × 40 in and $1,299.95 at 72 × 48 in.

Art & See lists this painting under its full museum title, Cafe Terrace at Night (Place du Forum, Arles), which is worth checking on any store: several catalogues file it as Terrace of a Cafe at Night, and a few sell a different Arles night scene under the same thumbnail.

Where to buy

Three routes for a night painting.

Lists it at the full museum title with a published size ladder, and sends a photograph of the finished canvas for approval, which is the only way to check for black in the darks.

Art & See
  • overstockArt — Cheaper at every comparable size, listing this subject from $109 at 8 × 10 in up to $349 at 36 × 48 in on 2026-09-05, and ships from the United States; the trade-off is that sizes are fixed and pre-order waits of six to eight weeks appear on popular items.
  • Kroller-Muller Museum — Publishes the museum's own image and the painting's display status, which is the reference file to send a studio and the place to check before travelling to see it.

Frequently asked questions

Is there any black in the original?

No. Van Gogh described the picture as a night scene painted without black, using deep blue and violet for the darks against the yellow and orange of the gaslight. It is the defining feature of the painting and the easiest thing to check in a copy.

What size matches the original?

The canvas is 80.7 × 65.3 cm, which is 31.8 × 25.7 in. A 30 × 24 in stock canvas is within a couple of centimetres and shares the proportion almost exactly at 1.25:1.

Why do the stars look different in every copy?

Because they are small and irregular, and studios simplify them. In the original each is a yellow-green halo of a few strokes with no hard edge, and they vary in size across the sky. Even white dots are the sign of a fast copy.

Sources

  1. Terrace of a cafe at night (Place du Forum), collection record — Kroller-Muller Museum. Accessed September 5, 2026.
  2. Van Gogh collection — Kroller-Muller Museum. Accessed September 5, 2026.
  3. Best-selling art reproductions, Van Gogh price ladder — overstockArt. Accessed September 5, 2026.
  4. Top 100 most famous paintings, ranked listing — HandmadePiece. Accessed September 5, 2026.
  5. How long does copyright protection last? — United States Copyright Office. Accessed September 5, 2026.
  6. File:Vincent Willem van Gogh - Cafe Terrace at Night (Yorck).jpg — Wikimedia Commons. Accessed September 5, 2026.

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