Essay on Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night at St. Rémy

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.

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.

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.

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 Willem Van Gogh was a Dutchman born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. The Starry Night is one of Van Gogh’s famous paintings in the world. It was believed that his painting was the view from his bedroom window. After a petition was signed saying Vincent Van Gogh was dangerous, they moved him to an asylum. He lived in a hospital where he suffered occasional relapse into delusions. While he was there, he was able to read, paint and withdraw from his room. As he was going through depression, Van Gogh then began to have hallucinations and even have thoughts of suicide. His art helped him stay emotionally balanced. He then started to paint The Starry Night, and used dark colors. For example, in the painting he clearly paints all the buildings dark and black and paints the stars and the moon brighter to make it stand out more. In his painting, he included a cypress tree which is usually found in cemeteries and represent mourning. There were rumors about his death, saying he had died because his illness

Vincent van Gogh painted Starry Night in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. The healing process began, his behavior began to coincide with society, and his mental health issues were being treated successfully. His positive turn around during the hospital allowed him to receive more freedoms than other patients. He could leave the hospital grounds; he was allowed to paint, read, and withdraw into his own room. Unfortunately, he relapsed. He began to experience hallucination, thoughts of suicide, and depression. During this time he created “Starry Night.”

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.

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,

“This morning I saw the countryside from my window a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,” (Van Gogh). This quote had a dedication to his brother Theo, right before his creation of “The Starry Night”. Also, from one of the most famous paint from the 19th century. Not only that, he was also a highly influencer for the 20th century art. In present day or in the 21st century he is a big influencer and inspiration of art. This artist is Vince Van Gogh, who has created the most “post-impressionist” paints. Which mean Van Gogh had a style, and was part of painting movement, that originated in France in the 1860’s. Vince Van Gogh is known as the “Greatest Dutch Painter.”

Most colors within the visible light spectrum hold specific emotions that are conveyed to individuals by artists through their pieces of art. Van Gogh carefully incorporated both vibrant and dark colors in his iconic painting Café Terrace at Night, of which span across a vast array of emotions. One of the colors that stand out when you first observe the painting is the vibrant yellow used for the exterior of the café. The color yellow is known within the art community as a cheerful and warm color, helping the café to come across as an inviting gathering place to the individuals observing the painting. Another color that Van Gogh used which quickly grabs

In my art appreciation class this spring, we watched a slide show of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting. There was a song playing during the slide show, it was called “Vincent” by Don McLean. We learned that Van Gogh was a sad artist. He would paint whatever he was feeling. In the middle of the night when he was sad and couldn’t sleep, he would go outside and just paint to get rid of any depressing thoughts. I saw his art the first time when I was in the doctor’s office.

     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.

Starry Night was painted by Vincent Van Gogh, a Dutch painter who was well known for being an impressionist during his time. Van Gogh was born March 30, 1853 in the Netherlands and died at the age of 37 in France where he actually painted Starry Night while in the Hospital. Starry Night is located in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City (Van Gogh Gallery). The main point of emphasis in Starry Night is the relationships between a community, nature, and religion. Van Gogh ties these three points of emphasis together in an exceptional manner in Starry Night. He compares the community and nature by placing the town near an alluring

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.