The starry night of Vincent Van Gogh
Analysis of the “star night” by Vincent Van Gogh
‘The starry night’ is a work painted by Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch painter who was born in 1853 and died in 1890. The picture was painted in June 1889, thirteen months before suicide with dimensions of 74 cm x 92 cm. This is a potsimpresiatist work. The painting was painted to Oil on canvas and is stored at the Museum of Modern Art, New York where it has been since 1941.
Several scenarios can be highlighted from this work. To begin with, the sky maintains the movement in the eyes of the audience following the curves of the clouds. Below the hills there is a small town, this transmits tranquility and silence since it is associated with the calm environment. The central point of the town is the needle of the church that stands out on the smallest buildings. The needle projects a sense of stability in the town, in addition to a more refined vision of sizes. Finally, the left of the painting is a huge and dark structure that develops a new size scale. This structure allows to deduce its own meaning, from a mountain to a leafy bush but the most common is that it is classified as cypress.
Main elements in "The starry night"
Invoice: The brushstroke is classified as a pasty, fast brushstroke, laga and with a rough and relief texture thanks to the pigment load, typical of Van Gogh. This creates contrast, and makes the hills and stars of the paint seem remarked in a plane other than the rest of the elements. The brushstroke defines the contour, the structure and internal description of each element, is determined and evident to the naked eye, not only delimiting planes, objects and surfaces, but also directions of light, and hinting an atmosphere of great energy load. The light is nocturnal and natural since it is only appreciated that which is emitted by the protagonists of this work, the stars, although there are also small light lights, so artificial, in the houses of the town but these are not responsible forThe light of the painting that is reflected with small brushstrokes in the different elements of the painting to create volume and contrast to the shadows.
The two characteristic colors of this painting are yellow, which manages to evoke pleasant and cheerful sensations, childhood and positive thoughts in addition to being energetic and blue, which is usually related to freshness, spirituality, freedom and peace. This primary color is also associated with feelings of calm. It is a mixture between the warm and coldThat series. However the cold predominate. They are everything but nuanced since different variants of all these are appreciated, some touches are darker and more clear and have a key role in the canvas since it is what highlights many others.
It has a depth in three dimensions to represent the people and give a first and background. The perspective is linear for the people and uses runners to give depth. The figures are not distributed symmetrically, the foreground (the dark structure) is located to the left of the drawing while the second (the sky and the people) is located behind the other. It is a clear and simple dstracy
The work can be divided into irregular geometric fragments that could come from regular and those forms the internal movement of clouds. The lines lead to the viewer’s view to the upper end of the composition. These are the focal point, or center of interest, throughout the work, and it is the first thing that shows to see "the starry night". The lines are predominantly curved. They express a undulating movement, the only straight lines are those of the houses of the houses. The contours of the town houses are marked with thick strokes of dark tones.
Forms of expression
‘The starry night’ belongs to figurative art since something similar we could admire from a window for example and we could say that realistic although you are not at all like that (it will be seen in the next section). Van Gogh, through stylization, performs visual representations simplified. Finally, the temporal dimension is fleeting since the nights always end in days.
Content and function
It has been said that the stars symbolize their religious past, that the sky with spirals is a reflection of their tormented mind, that "the cypress" that appears represents the idea of death and that the small village of the painting is related to its hometown. What highlights the most is heaven since it is the characteristic of the painting and globally recognized.
Previously, when it was mentioned that this work is not completely realistic, it was partly because it is not painted in that way but in a way felt at a time of relapse in its mental illness. Thus the painter shows us the contrast between the dark city and asleep with the show of the sky and its swirling movement. That means that maybe, Van Gogh wants to show us is the attitude of man in the face of the complexity and beauty of nature.
This work was painted for love of art as it would be said, since what is known for, does not hide a reason for realization by which its publication. The artist in question only sold one work during his life. In 1890, the year of his death, a picture known as the red vineyard to a Belgian painter named Anna Boch. The price paid for that work was 400 francs. The full title of the work is the red vineyard near Arles and was painted in 1888.
The context of the work
Simon Singh, in his book Big Bang, comments that "the starry night" has some similarity with a swollen swaping, made by Lord Rosse 44 years before Van Gogh. When Lingent painted "the starry night" he was admitted to the hospital for the mentally ill of Saint Paul de Mausole, located south of Saint Rémy (France), just at the foot of the mountain range of the Alphilles, he himself requested that hethey will enter the psychiatric hospital;The poor man was deranged and wanted his forces to heal and live calmly and in peace with himself. During his stay there they allowed him to continue painting and did not miss time. Instead of relaxing, he created new works without stopping, inspired by the gardens that surrounded the hospital and the landscapes he saw through the high window of his room. The painter himself acknowledged that this was not among his most precious paintings and in fact he did not transmit much, however, he is currently valued between 500 and 1000 million dollars.
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