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The Starry Night And Vincent Van Gogh's The Scream

Decent Essays

“The Starry Night “and” The Scream” have held their iconic places throughout history. Painted during different time periods “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 and the “The Scream” by Edvard Munch in 1893 share many similarities, are both equally famous and have become iconic symbols in the world of art.

The Starry Night” was created by Vincent van Gogh in 1889, during the post-impressionist period. This movement was sparked predominantly by artists that sought to reject French influences. Post-impressionists gravitated away from the naturalist impressionism of the early 1800’s, and instead focused on individual emotional expression and deeper symbolism that was often depicted in an abstract or distorted manner (Voorhies). “The Starry Night” is a clear reflection of this movement. It was painted during a very emotional and traumatic time during Van Gogh’s life. Van Gogh, created his work after viewing the night sky through the bars of his window at St. Remy Asylum, shortly after admitting himself after he suffered his infamous …show more content…

This is clearly an illustration of the sky at night and realistic influences are apparent in this work. The use of the impasto technique and color blending to create color palates that are not present in the natural world gives the painting a distorted or abstract quality. There is also a sense of separation present in this work. The city in the painting has a stillness to it, it is calm and peaceful completely in contrast to the sky above. The separation in mood is so prevalent that this painting could be two separate paintings. One of the twisting turning night sky, and the other of the calm village below. This illustrates a feeling of alienation and of being a part of the world but separate from it at the same time. Thus, marking it as a work of the post-impressionist artist whose emotion it depicts

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