1888
Showing 20 works across all media from 1888

Cafe Terrace at Night
Van Gogh set up outside and painted the terrace on the spot after dark, pleased that he had used no black at all.

The Night Cafe
Van Gogh wanted a room where a man could ruin himself or go mad, and got it with red walls and a green ceiling.

Starry Night Over the Rhone
Gaslights along the Arles quay drop long quivering reflections into the water, the Great Bear overhead, a couple walking arm in arm below.

The Models
Seurat painted this to prove the dots could handle a nude, and hung his own Grande Jatte on the studio wall behind them.

Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
The pianist he wrote it for called it worthless and unplayable, so Tchaikovsky premiered it in Boston instead, where it was a triumph.

The Last of the Buffalo
Bierstadt painted this vast hunt as the herds were nearing extinction, with skulls and bones already lying across the foreground.
The government of cities is the one conspicuous failure of the United States.
More men are killed by overwork than the importance of this world justifies.