Paintings Monet's 1868 "The River" Term Paper

The black in the male cafe patrons' suits, renders an aura of sophistication. The combination of white and black grabs the eye and creates a sense of movement that corresponds with the lively dancing.

Painted only 12 years later, Van Gogh's "Night Cafe" conveys a completely different cafe ambiance. Whereas Renoir's cafe is full of life and light, Van Gogh's is strikingly lonely, occupied by a few sullen drunks with their heads on their tables and the central figure who stands next to a billiards table.Van Gogh uses muddy hues to parallel the theme of the painting. Renoir's black and white affair conveys a bourgeois ambiance, and Van Gogh's ruddy earth tones clearly impart a working class sensibility. Moreover, Van Gogh's cafe uses indoor lighting, which is less inspirational than the uplifting feeling from the open-air "Le Moulin de la Galette." Correspondingly, Van Gogh uses yellow for lights rather than the pure….....