Vincent Van Gogh The Great Wave Off Kanagawa

The life span of 37 years saw Vincent Willem van Gogh (Vincent) in creating beautiful works he dearly loved. Painting was an avenue, which allowed him to express his inner thoughts or vent his struggles. My decision to research on Vincent’s painting, Starry Night (1889) came with the inspiration from Don Mclean’s Song, Starry Starry Night where his lyrics spoke about Vincent’s life that further intrigued me in writing this paper.

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.

Around the age of six years old, Hokusai began painting and even spent time as an apprentice wood-carver in his youth. He began the art of print making when he was eighteen. His most famous painting, The Great Wave, can be seen in museums all over the world even though Japan delayed it from catching on worldwide. Many believe that it was painted in the early 1800s, but Japan was not interacting culturally with other countries apart from trade with China and Korea. It wasn’t until 1859 when the Japanese were forced to open their ports that prints of The Wave spread across Europe. Originally, this piece wasn’t viewed as real art by Japanese politicians and art historians. Wood-block printing was used for commercial use and as a popular form of expression. The Japanese government wasn’t too thrilled “that such a seemingly lowbrow art form had come to define them” (15 Things). About five thousand to eight thousand prints were made but it is speculated that only a few hundreds of The Great Wave remain. The painting actually inspired music like Debussy’s La Mer.

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,

Van Gogh is one of the most recognizable names in art, and he is a Dutch painter who took part of the Post-Impressionism and Symbolism era. The Post-Impressionism era had artists reject Impressionists’ way of seeing as they created their own personal ideals, which is probably what intrigued Van Gogh. Van Gogh’s artwork usually expressed his troubled emotions in his paintings. It’s amazing to see his distressed personality conveyed in his work. One of his brilliant paintings is a Starry Night.

Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa is arguably the most popular Japanese piece of art. The artwork can be seen around the world from art museums to dorm rooms. His use of Prussian blue and indigo come from European artwork he saw through the Dutch trade. In Under the Wave off Kanagawa, the stark contrast can be seen between the massive wave that takes up most of the paper and the small Mount Fuji is in the background. The wave’s size and strength is emphasized as it engulfs the boats below it. Even though Under the Wave off Kanagawa was painted more than 180 years ago, it is still an iconic piece that many admire

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Katsushika Hokusai is an important piece in the history of Japanese art because it illustrates how native Japanese aesthetics and beliefs continue to thrive in its own art, despite new, foreign influences and changing trends in what is deemed as beautiful. Similar to many other landscape woodblock prints, it demonstrates an influence from the west with its ability to produce a sense of realism, space, and depth. Such an influence, however, does not dominate over the native Japanese aesthetics, but is incorporated with them instead. One example is how the composition appears to be more heavily weighted on the left-hand side due to the large size of the cresting wave. The sense of asymmetry has its roots since ancient

Both Katushika Hokusai and Emil Nolde were excellent artists; however their techniques, subject matter, and final appearance are drastically different. In regards to technique Hokusai used the woodblock printing method, although Emil Nolde used a similar method for his rendition of “Prophet”, it was not cleanly portrayed like “The Great Wave”. Pertaining to subject matter, Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” revolves around the seascape of japan and expresses the power of the ocean. Nolde on the other hand had a religious feel to his piece the “Prophet” with a great sense of despair. The outcome of their respective techniques was vastly different.

It appears everywhere: in the art gallery, on the dresses from the latest runway show and even on your iPhone's protective case……What I'm talking about is one of the most distinguished pieces of Japanese art, The Great Wave off Kanagawa. These blue waves, generating from the sea of Kanagawa, immediately rippled through the world and continue to draw millions of people. The work has such an everlasting charm because it enjoys high artistic, ideological, and historical value.

Almost instantaneously recognizable, The Great Wave off Kanagawa (woodblock, 10 1/8 x 14 15/16 in, c. 1830-32), created by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai in 1830, beautifully captures the graceful, swelling movement of a crashing tsunami. Because of the way in which line and proportion are utilized, this woodblock print gracefully portrays the sheer power of the ocean. Derived from the Edo period in nineteenth century Japan, this classic was the first of a series of works from Hokusai titled Thirty-six views of Mount Fuji, all of which effortlessly depict the mountain in a wide array of angles and scenery. Arguably, The Great Wave off Kanagawa is the most iconic and cherished piece of Japanese artwork in the world. Even more importantly, Hokusai is considered prominent father figure for both Japanese art, as well as Western modernization as a whole. The Great Wave truly displays how tiny and weak man is compared to the force of nature. Not only is The Great Wave a quintessential piece of art, but it established a piece in the comprehensive networks of art, trade, and politics, that has instilled a tremendous positive impact on the twenty first century.

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.

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.

“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.