A strangeness of sentiment ... a constituent element of all great art

"the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone"

"I was only interrupted by my work on a new painting representing the exterior of a night café. On the terrace there are small figures of people drinking. An immense yellow lantern illuminates the terrace, the facade, the side walk and even casts light on the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone. The gables of the houses, like a fading road below a blue sky studded with stars, are dark blue or violet with a green tree. Here you have a night painting without black, with nothing but beautiful blue and violet and green and in this surrounding the illuminated area colours itself sulfur pale yellow and citron green. It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot. Normally, one draws and paints the painting during the daytime after the sketch. But I like to paint the thing immediately. It is true that in the darkness I can take a blue for a green, a blue lilac for a pink lilac, since it is hard to distinguish the quality of the tone. But it is the only way to get away from our conventional night with poor pale whitish light, while even a simple candle already provides us with the richest of yellows and oranges".

           ... Vincent van Gogh (1853-90), Dutch painter. Excerpt from a letter to his sister about his painting  “Cafe Terrace at Night”.

 A recent photo of the same scene in Arles, France
[note: "the paving stones of the road which take a pinkish violet tone"
are gone, replaced by dull pavement, sadly]