Rachael Brooks
Mrs. Cole
English 4B
23 October 2015 Analyzing Mood and Theme in Starry Night For many, the painting Starry Night, by Vincent Van Gogh, is simply paint on a canvas. Created in the summer of 1889, while Van Gogh was in a mental asylum, others perceive the painting as a message of Van Gogh’s desire for acceptance and normalcy. Heavily influenced by the Expressionist movement, Starry Night is a physical representation of Van Gogh’s feelings of melencholy during his stay in the asylum. His troubled mind allowed Van Gogh to create a painting with a yearning mood. Throughout the years, people have tried to understand Van Gogh’s reason for painting Starry Night. One way that people have used to try to understand him is through ekphrastic poetry, which is poetry about a work of art, such as Anne Sexton’s ‘The Starry Night” poem and Don McClean’s “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night).” While “The Starry Night” by Anne Sexton depicts Starry Night as having an ominous mood, the empathetic mood in “Vincent (Starry, Starry Night),” by Don McClean, with its use of sympathetic diction, detail, and figurative language best mirrors that of the original painting. Van Gogh’s Starry Night expresses the troubles and yearnings going on in the artist’s mind as he painted. The focal point in the foreground of the painting is a dark object, blocking the viewer’s sight line to the town. This dark object may represent Van Gogh’s insanity blocking his chance at a normal life.
The poem, ‘Starry Night’, by Anna Sexton, which was interpretation of a personal view for Van Gogh’s artwork, “Starry Night”. The prophetical nature of Anne Sexton 's spiritual poetry, Starry Night, ensues the melancholy of humanity. The poem depicts Sexton 's interpretation of the immense psychological suffering of a "religious" human being. By addressing, Van Gogh 's work caught with a deep understanding of an emptiness of the soul and also the familiar warfare of his mental distresses. Sexton showcases the shared tiredness of life, by describing religion as an example of extreme emotional desperation. However, the poem dilutes the attention of many optimistic people who do not share its attire, instead an interpretation must be attained by those who can have a glimpse of their own eternal suffering. Although, the poetry has tragic finishing, it re-opens for me personally, the divinity of melancholy.
During Vincent’s time at the Saint-Rémy sanatorium, he painted one of his renowned landscape paintings, Starry Night in 1889. The choice of medium used was oil paint where Vincent famously displayed his impasto technique on the hemp material canvas. He wrote to his brother about his inspiration stating, “This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big” . Hence, you can infer that Starry Night was painted from the view of Vincent’s room where the background of the composition depicts the night scenery of a small and peaceful village, which juxtaposes the movements of the brightly lit sky. However, Vincent did not exactly follow what he saw from his window but painted from what he saw in his imagination, following the likes of Gauguin.
Vincent van Gogh was a deeply troubled, post-impressionist artist and his painting “Starry Night” is his most famous piece. Working from memory, he painted the oil on canvas passing the time in Saint-Remy-de-Provence located in southern France while undergoing treatment in an insane asylum. The piece is very energetic with eleven fireball
In Vincent van Gogh’s renowned painting, The Starry Night, the vast night sky dominates the background space of the painting. The brightness of the eleven stars, with their yellow celestial glow illuminate the night, blanketing the sleepy, rural village below. Far from the glaring lights of the urban landscape, the pureness of the stars’ radiance floats effortlessly above, lulling the people of the quaint village to sleep. Hovering in the upper right hand corner is a brilliant orange crescent moon, which contributes to the warm mood and aesthetic value of the piece. Mountains, rolling hills and wheat fields surround the cottages as though nature itself is getting a sleepy respite from a long day, much like the townspeople. Toward the forefront of the painting are
In this piece of art Van Gogh shows that even tho in a dark night you can still look out your window at night and see light. Another example of that would be in your dark or hard times in life, there is always a brighter side to everything.
To begin with, everyone knows Vincent Van Gogh. He is one the most famous artists in the world. In Van Gogh's “Starry Night” it has been said that the painting depicts his view from an asylum. After receiving a mental
The Starry Night are one of Vincent Van Gogh's most famous paintings. The Starry Night was painted from a memory that he had. And wasn't painted from a landscape. The landscape was formed using curves and forms of short lines he also used a form of swirling lines and texture. He used blue, white, and yellow lines to paint the piece. And it became one of his most famous pieces of art. He finished the art piece in 1889.
Vincent Willem Van Gogh was a Dutchman born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. The Starry Night is one of Van Gogh’s famous paintings in the world. It was believed that his painting was the view from his bedroom window. After a petition was signed saying Vincent Van Gogh was dangerous, they moved him to an asylum. He lived in a hospital where he suffered occasional relapse into delusions. While he was there, he was able to read, paint and withdraw from his room. As he was going through depression, Van Gogh then began to have hallucinations and even have thoughts of suicide. His art helped him stay emotionally balanced. He then started to paint The Starry Night, and used dark colors. For example, in the painting he clearly paints all the buildings dark and black and paints the stars and the moon brighter to make it stand out more. In his painting, he included a cypress tree which is usually found in cemeteries and represent mourning. There were rumors about his death, saying he had died because his illness
“The Starry Night" was created in 1889 during the post-impressionistic period which was a time in which artists used symbolism and color to expressed their feelings and psychological well being (MOMA Learning, n.d.). Additionally, this was also a time in
Vincent Van Gogh was a Dutch artist from the mid 1800’s who was considered to have created approximately 2000 artworks. Growing up, he was classified to be highly emotional and having low self-esteem. Within those depressed emotions, it helped him pioneer the path of expressionism in his art pieces. But as he got more into him artwork he came more mature with his artwork and caused his color patterns and brush strokes to evolve into another style of art called Impressionism. Starry Night Over the Rhone was one of his last ‘few years’ paintings. It was painted in September of 1888. The canvas resides in Musée d'Orsay,
Vincent Van Gogh was formed by his social, cultural and historical context. This is expressed clearly in the underlying stories of both paintings, Starry Night, 1889 and Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1889. Both of these paintings portray a narrative relating to Van Gogh significantly as he emotionally connects to the subject in each painting. Van Gogh’s aim of these subjective works was to express meaning through colour and express the painting to a more personal emotion for the viewer. Van Gogh belonged to a small style of Post Impressionism which was a reaction against Impressionism and their formality.
With its swirling colors and lines, The Starry Night, incorporates not just the color and light that is found in the earlier works of these painters, but it shows how forms and feelings also came into play. One of van Gogh’s main beliefs was that art was a direct representation of how the artist feels. Having grown up in a very religious family, van Gogh viewed the heavens as a beautiful, living thing. His heavy brushstrokes and vivid colors portray the night sky as crazy and chaotic and the village below as peaceful and serene. Van Gogh’s troubled life, which involved many failures in life, love and business, forced him into madness, which eventually caused him to commit suicide. While the problems of his life may have caused personal trauma, the artistic importance of his insanity is overwhelming. Perhaps if he had not gone crazy, he never would have created the masterpieces that have had such an impact on art and history.
Starry Night was painted by Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch painter who was well known for being an impressionist during his time. Van Gogh was born March 30, 1853 in the Netherlands and died at the age of 37 in France where he actually painted Starry Night while in the Hospital. Starry Night is located in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (Van Gogh Gallery). The main point of emphasis in Starry Night is the relationships between a community, nature, and religion. Van Gogh ties these three points of emphasis together in an exceptional manner in Starry Night. He compares the community and nature by placing the town near an alluring
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul,” said William Maugham, a British playwright from the 19th century. Vincent Van Gogh, an artist who is considered by many one of the most inspirational artists in history, was no stranger to depicting his struggles in life or feelings in his work. Van Gogh’s piece Starry Night, designed in the year 1889, shows this to be true in that it was the result of his experiences in an asylum that encouraged this piece. Despite this work has being so well known, many critics and observers of the piece have differing views on what he was trying to communicate through it. Two prime examples of this can be seen by the views expressed in the poems entitled, “Vincent” and “The Starry Night”, written by Don McClean and Anne Sexton, respectively. While the poem “Vincent”, has a depressing tone to it, “The Starry Night”, by Anne Sexton, depicts Starry Night as having a more lively mood, which more accurately represents that of the painting, by Vincent Van Gogh.
The reason why Vincent van Gogh created the portray called “The Starry Night” was because he began to suffer hallucination and have thoughts of suicide as he plunged into depression. Just before sunrise, he was inspired by the east-facing window view of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence which he later uses his imagination to create the artwork. The Starry Night masterpiece was based on van Gogh’s direct observations as well as his imagination, memories, and emotions of the sunset at the asylum. He also wrote a letter to his brother Theo van Gogh about him seeing an amazing view which was stated: “This morning I saw the country from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big”. This part of the letter was evidence that he created “The Starry Night” because he was inspired by the view and use his imagination to paint the picture with oil painting.