Starry Night And Van Gogh Analysis

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

Select a non-discursive artifact such as a painting, a musical composition, a building, or a piece of furniture. Do the five canons of rhetoric—invention, organization, style, memory, and delivery—apply? If they do, explain how you see them manifest in the artifact.

In my research / readings of my chosen Artist, I found a lot of information about them that I will descibe individually. Based on the biography, It has been stated that Vincent “was a most well known post-impressionism Artist, for whom color was the chief symbol of expression, he was highly emotional, lacked self-confidence and struggled with his identity and with direction.” (Templeton Reid) In the late 1800’s is when Vincent basically made the decision to become an Artist, in which he wanted to provide some type of Happiness because he was able to create beauty (Templeton Reid). As you review the art chosen above by Vincent Van Gogh, you will notice the colors used were dark i.e. Greens, Oranges, Blues, with splashes of yellow to create the sun, which led me to believe that maybe this was when he was in the dark place of his life. In the Van Gogh painting, I see big trees with the nice bright sun shining over the blue water, while looking at the trees it makes me feel safe because of the openness of the surrounding space, also the brightness of the sun and the coolness of the water makes me calm and relaxed, it’s just something about being in nature that gives me a sense of peace and direction, nothing to distract or disturb me.

When I first saw Vincent van Gogh’s painting of The Starry Night, I was immediately drawn to the peaceful luminescent stars emanating outward like vibrant yellow halos into the captivating striking blue sky. I felt a sense of calm and tranquility as the bright orange moon shone intently over the serene village below. The sprawling mountain range, grassy hills and fields of wheat intensified this feeling as a soft wind swept through the countryside. Under the immense stars and vibrant night sky, the people of the village sleep soundly in their cottages. This painting exudes an overwhelming feeling of calmness and peace in my mind.

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.

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

The first four sources I will be using are related to “The Starry Night” painting from Vincent van Gogh. The first source, located on MOMA Learning, is titled "Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night, 1889” which does not appear to have an author or publication date. The MOMA Learning article provides insights into the interpretations of the artwork, including insights into Van Gogh’s mental state at the time that the painting. Additionally, the article provides relevant information regarding the post-impressionists use of their art as a way to express their emotions and “psychological responses to the world through bold colors and expressive, often symbolic images” (MOMA Learning, n.d.). The second source is “Van Gogh: Art and Suicide”

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.

The flow of the white brushstrokes in the sky seems to give the painting its feel of

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.

“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.

Vincent Van Gogh is a well-known artist to people because of one of his paintings, The Starry Night. Van Gogh has painted many other pieces during his lifetime including one that is currently on display at the Minnesota Institute of Art, Olive Trees. This painting is part of a series of olive tree paintings consisting of a total 18 pieces of art. The one at the Minnesota Institute of Art was painted November of 1889 and is known as “Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun”. Through a contextual analysis of this piece a lot can be discovered about its meaning. When this piece is compared to other artwork by Van Gogh even more fascinating details emerge about this piece of art.