“Starry Night” Is One Of The Most Popular Canvasesin Modern-Day

One of the most mysterious and thought-provoking images to date was painted in 1889 from a mental health institution in St. Remy, France by non-other than Vincent Van Gogh. The opulence of blues and yellows has the ability bring a viewer to its knees, mostly in a subconscious manner that evokes a kind of spiritual quest, perhaps one that Van Gogh was on himself. The Starry Night is still heavily contemplated and its meaning is still relatively unknown and quite debated, as is the man himself. In an effort to gain an understanding of not only the painting but the painter himself, I chose two articles that provide an understanding of the art and the artist: Van Gogh’s Agony by Lauren Soth and Under the Starry Night by Denis J. Billy. Both writers take a different approach to grasping the elusive understanding of this wondrous work but occasionally find some similarities and understanding of him and his work, which I will elaborate on through the course of this paper.

Vincent Van Gogh used the 4 elements of art in his masterpiece “The Starry night” he used lines to create the background and foreground in the picture he used spiral lines to create the humongous Cypress tree in the painting. Van Gogh also used lines to give the stars more attention than what they were getting before. Van Gogh used shapes and forms in his painting, he used geometric forms to present the houses in the back as 3-D shapes. Van Gogh used space in his artwork by making it an illusion to the person looking at the photo. “...look at the cypress tree in the foreground.

The tone used in Vincent’s painting were a mixed of warm and cool colours to convey his emotions. In order to achieve the dramatic mood of this painting, Vincent used white and yellow oil paints, which marries well with the blue and green to create the night sky.

The Post-Impressionism artist Vincent Van Gogh created his masterwork Starry Night in 1889. Unlike the painting of Altdorfer, this painting was more personal and had the conflict of man vs. himself. The painting of Starry Night took place in France while he was in the care of the Saint Remy of Provence Psychiatric Hospital. Van Gogh yearned for a life that was calm and harmonious during his seemingly never ending depressive state. In Starry Night Van Gogh’s point of view is omniscient as well but, he detaches himself even further. He Van Gogh creates a night sky embellished by the swirling of its clouds and the illuminating blaze from its stars. He uses lines that are arabesque in continuation that creates a fluid like design over the work making it harmonious. Located below the dynamic sky is a row rolling hills in which the artist used different tones to create a sense of depth in his work by the use of atmospheric perspective however, the painting still has a look of flatness. The hills lead the eyes to a small calm inviting town created using simple shapes. The church in the valley towers over all the homes as if it was a guardian. The tall steeple of the church is not able to touch the magnificent sky however, there is an eerie cypress tree in the foreground it is able to touch the

I had watched a short video presentation on Vincent Van Gogh’s artwork that followed along with a song called “Vincent (Starry, starry night)” on Youtube. I watched this video with my class in Art Appreciation at Rogers State University.

It is very popular due to having so many aspects that intrigue viewers. There is the night sky filled with swirling clouds, stars ablaze with their own luminescence, and a bright crescent moon. This sky keeps the viewer’s eyes moving about the painting, following the curves and creating a visual dot to dot with the stars. Below the rolling hills of the horizon lies a small town. There is a peaceful aspect flowing from the structures. The center of the town is the tall steeple of the church, towering largely over the smaller buildings. This steeple gives a sense of stability to the town and also creates the sense of size and isolation. To the left of the painting there is a large dark structure that creates an even greater sense of size and solitude. This structure is grand when compared to the scale of the other objects. The curving lines reflect the ones in the sky and creates depth. This structure also lets the viewer to make sense of what it is. Van Gogh’s use of color in “The Starry Night” has been much debated, p​articularly the dominance of yellow in this and some of his other later works. Some say the odd choice of coloring in his painting was due to him possibly suffering from lead poisoning. Van Gogh's use of white and yellow creates a circling effect and draws focus to the sky. Vertical lines such as the tree and church tower softly break up the composition without taking away from the night sky in Starry Night. Vincent van Gogh ́s choice of greens and dark blues were achieved with little bits of mint green which shows the reflection of the moon. The buildings in the center of the painting are small blocks of yellows, oranges, and greens with red to the left of the church. The blue in Starry Night is balanced by the orange of the night sky elements. Van Gogh ́s passion for nighttime is evident in the Starry Night painting, where the strong sky sits above the quiet town. It seems

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,

The Starry Night Over the Rhône is a painting finished by Vincent van Gogh in France September 1888. The style of this painting is Impressionism. The background scene has a beach sailboats a couple walking on the beach and a dock in the distance and a town. The description of the painting is that Vincent van Gogh patented a calm night at the beach.

There are different understandings of Starry Night and one of it is that this canvas portrays trust. It appears that van Gogh was demonstrating that even with a dull night, for example, this is still conceivable to see a light in the windows of the houses. Moreover, with sparkling stars filling the sky, there is constantly light to guide you. It appears that van Gogh was, at last, being cured of his disease and had basically discovered his paradise. He likewise realized that in death he would find a sense of contentment and further depicts this by utilizing striking hues as a part of the Starry Night painting. In "The potato eaters" He painted the five figures in earth hues – 'something like the shade of a truly dusty potato, unpeeled obviously'. The message of the work of art was more vital to Van Gogh than right life systems or specialized flawlessness. He was exceptionally satisfied with the outcome: yet his work of art drew extensive feedback since its hues were so dull and the figures loaded with slip-ups. Van Gogh's enthusiasm for evening time is obvious in "the Starry Night" painting, where the effective sky sits over the calm town. It appears that van Gogh is standing out life and demise from iridescent stars and a melancholy, serene

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

This is good for painters who take a while on paintings because they can come back the next day and manipulate something that they want to look differently. The Starry Night is a type of oil painting. It is a realistic picture of what a nighttime sky would look like, therefore it is a piece of representational artwork. You can tell that Van Gogh built up a lot of layers to form the different hues of blues he wanted throughout the painting. The stars in this are very strong and bright while the village seems a little gloomy and depressing.

One of Vincent Van Gogh’s most world renowned paintings is his landscape oil painting Starry Night. The painting displays a small town underneath an unusual yet still extremely beautiful night sky. In this night sky, Van Gogh utilizes an array of colors that blend well together in order to enhance the sky as a whole. The town is clearly a small one due to the amount of buildings that are present in the painting itself. In this small town most of the buildings have lights on which symbolize life in a community. Another visual in Starry Night is the mountain like figures that appear in the background of the illustrious painting. Several things contribute to the beauty of Van Gogh’s painting which are the painting’s function, context, style, and design. Van Gogh’s utilization of these elements help bring further emphasis to his work in Starry Night.

     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.

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

Many elements and principles are portrayed in this art piece. To begin with, the first thing I see and grabs my attention is the swirling wind. Rhythm and Movement can be seen and it creates a flow to the rest of the painting in which leads your eyes to follow along the path of the swirl and brings you to the next subject. It allowed me to view the art piece up to down and left to right, as I started from the swirl to the stars