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Volume 16, Number 8–August 2010
About the Cover
Not from the Stars Do I My Judgment Pluck1
Polyxeni Potter* 
*Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Suggested citation for this article
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) Terrace of a Café at Night (Place du Forum) (c. 18 September 1888) Oil on canvas (80.7 cm × 65.3 cm) Courtesy of Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, the Netherlands
"It amuses me enormously to paint the night right on the spot," wrote Vincent van Gogh to his brother Theo. "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 …." Despite this affection for the night, van Gogh described Night Café, one of his best known night paintings, as "one of the ugliest I have done." Though he loved the purity of the night outdoors, he loathed urban night life. "I have attempted to show that the café is a place where a man can ruin himself, become mad, commit a crime…." He moved away from Paris, where he lived with Theo, to Arles, "wishing to see a new light" and explore the calm.
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