Having demonstrated, in academic journals and the media at-large, the likelihood that Vincent van Gogh painted a Symbolist depiction of the Last Supper, I revisit the subject, Cafe Terrace at Night (1888), by offering new evidence, a deeper understanding of the painter’s ethos and progress while he conceived it, and finally a call, a plea, to certain individuals, in the search to recover specific pieces of physical evidence.
New evidence includes: settling the case Cafe Terrace at Night should be considered Symbolist, van Gogh’s exposure to Frederick von Uhde’s depiction of the Last Supper from the 1887 Paris Salon, a robust evaluation of Paul Gauguin’s Vision After the Sermon (1888) as a response piece to Cafe Terrace, French art critic and Symbolist champion G. Albert Aurier’s original ownership and admiration of the painting, and the profound effects of two articles from the July, 1888 Revue des Deux Mondes that inspired Vincent to contrive for a brotherhood of twelve artist-monks who would forge a 'Southern Renaissance' that was distinctly Symbolist.
