Night Cafe Painting by van Gogh Pillow

From the miner's lamp of Nuenen to the one he placed on his window-sill following the scene with Gauguin; from the evening star he noted in 1875 in Corot Olive Orchard to the letter he wrote to his brother in August 1888, in which he said: "Some day or other you will see a picture of the little house itself bathed in sunlight, or else with the window lighted and a starry sky above"--throughout these years Van Gogh was obsessed by the symbolism of luminous objects and of colour. The lamp was a symbol of calm and security. The star symbolised faith, and gaslight, human realities. Deep ultramarine blue was infinity, while red and green expressed "those terrible things, men's passions."