
From left: Vincent van Gogh. Terrace of a Café at Night (Place du Forum). c. September 1888. Oil on canvas, 80.7 x 65.3 cm. Kröller-Müller Museum; Café Nuit, Arles. Photo by Alex Roediger
July 29, 2015, is the 125th anniversary of Vincent van Gogh’s death. This past spring I fulfilled one of my lifelong dreams by taking a trip to Europe to follow in Van Gogh’s footsteps. As a teenager I checked out every library book about Van Gogh, and eventually read the unabridged three-volume set of letters he wrote to his brother, Theo. With so much time having passed, I was eager to see if anything from Van Gogh’s time had survived.