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Analysis Of Vincent Van Gogh's The Starrry Night

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Vincent Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” depicts the swirling and turbulent light of the night sky over a dark almost deathly country village, reflecting Van Gogh’s inner struggles with his mental demons, illness and thoughts of what was beyond life. The painting was created in June of 1889, towards the end of his life, during his stay at the Asylum of Saint-Remy. Suffering from declining health and mental instability, the peaceful regimen of the sanatorium served as a period of personal reflection and inspiration for many of his greatest works. One such work, ,“The Starry Night”, thought by many to be his single greatest work he deemed a failure. In a letter to his brother Theo he once remarked that “All in all the only things I consider a little good in it are the Wheatfield, the Mountain, the Orchard, the Olive trees with the blue hills and the Portrait and the Entrance to the quarry, and the rest says nothing to me” (Van Gogh 853). While he may have only sold two paintings in his lifetime he was well reviewed by Albert Aurier a fellow artist and art critic. He wrote that Van Gogh “perceives the coloration of things with such intensity, with such a metallic, gem-like quality, his work as intense and feverish, his brushstrokes as fiery, very powerful, his palette as dazzling, and said his technique matched his artistic temperament: vigorous and intense”( Les Isolés: Vincent van Gogh).

The asymmetric composition of the work is emphasized with curved and diagonal

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