Analysis Of The Starry Night By Vincent Van Gogh

The starry night is a painting that was made by Vincent van Gogh. It’s a landscape painting made in June of 1889. It’s an oil painting on a canvas that he painted while in an asylum after he had a breakdown in 1888. He painted the starry night while he inside of the asylum that he voluntarily went to. The starry night is one of many versions of the paintings he made. He made many paintings of the view from his room in the asylum in different weather. Each painting was of the same view however van Gogh managed to make each painting different from each other and they each were unique in their own separate ways.

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 had a plethora of mental illnesses. He suffered from episodes of depression, paralyzing anxiety, and, on some accounts, bipolar disorder. He was well aware of his condition. He once said, “I put my heart and soul into my work, and have half lost my mind in the process.” Everybody knows the story of how Van Gogh mutilated his own ear. This is true, but it only happened because of a massive mental breakdown in December of 1888. In May of 1889, Van Gogh admitted himself into the asylum due to his mental state. There he would sit in his room and look out the one window that he had. This is actually the source of the scene within The Starry Night. The small town is Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, which is in southern France. He had a view, the exact view that we see in the painting, of this town from his sanitarium room window. Of course, he left out the visual of the metal bars in the window. Although he started to go mentally insane, his mental illnesses allowed him to do great things. The painting depicts Saint-Rémy at night, even though he painted it from memory during the daytime. This was not the only account of this. He later had to repaint an image because it had been destroyed in travel after he was discharged from the asylum. Van Gogh had to paint The Starry Night from memory because his art supplies were kept in a separate room from his main room. He was in the asylum from May of 1889 through May of 1890. He became very obsessed with nature during his time, especially trees, the landscape at the asylum, and caterpillars symbolized the opportunity of transformation and change. He also saw budding flowers as a

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

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.

Van Gogh depicted clouds and stars in whirly shape in order to direct the viewer´s eye around the painting. When standing in front the painting, one would spontaneously be attracted by those swirls and would follow one swirl to another. These elements make the painting seems to be fluid and abstract. The yellow crescent moon at the upper right corner is blight and mild. It softens the painting to convey a sense of serenity. Compared to other Impressionist paintings, Starry Night is somehow different: van Gogh used very expressive color and distorted form to give the viewers a very bright picture. Van Gogh wrote a letter to his brother to point out that compared to other Impressionist artists of that time, he utilized “exaggeration in terms of composition.” He uses techniques such as surrealism to draw those swirls. In Starry Night the landscape seems to be a way to convey the artist’s emotion. I believe that the fight van Gogh had against his mental illness is reflected in the painting. When looking at the upper sky in the painting, there is a strong contrast between the sky and the stars, similar to what van Gogh experienced that time: his illness and his hope to recover. Van Gogh painted the village in dark color but on the contrary, he used bright color to draw the windows. I think this contrast gave people the idea that finally human should have hope and try their best to overcome the

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, the artist remembered today for his wonderful paintings. Paintings remembered today by many. His most famous ones are known as: Starry Night, Starry Night over the Rhone, Almond Blossoms, His self- portrait, Eiffel Tower from across the Seine, and Road with Cypress and Star. How did he acquire that taste for art? And what about his personal life?

Before starting my research into van Gogh. I knew as much as the ordinary person would about him. His artwork is so renowned in the world that generally everyone has an idea of who he was and I shared that understanding. Whenever someone talks about post-impressionism van Gogh’s name is always mentioned. Before my research, I knew two of his works, one, a self-portrait (1887) , which is one of over thirty portraits he painted between 1886 and 1889. The second artwork is the famous ‘The Starry Night’ , which I first discovered by looking at a teapot my mother owns which has the painting on it. I remember it catching my eye because of the way van Gogh was able to capture light and the way he created movement in the sky through the use of swirls but I hadn’t taken my interest in his work any further.

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,

One of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings is The Starry Night. Although, Van Gogh sold only one painting in his life, the aftermath of his work is enormous (Schapiro 31). Widely known as his greatest piece of work, the painting has been reproduced several times and is one of his most famous paintings. Van Gogh however, was not satisfied with this painting, in a letter to his brother Theo from Saint-Remy he states,

     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