The Starry Night

           Vincent van Gogh is a post-impressionist artist, who had created all of his artworks in just over a decade before his death. After he had ongoing conflict with Paul Gauguin, he cut his ear, and he was hospitalized in a mental hospital at Saint-Remy in France. While he was staying in the mental hospital, he created many well-known artworks, including The Starry Night. This painting was believed to show the landscape from his bedroom at the mental hospital in 1889.

            Van Gogh was born to an upper middle class family, and he spent his early age working as an art dealer. Although he drew when he was a child, he did not started painting until he was in twenties. When he first encountered Japanese artworks, he really enjoyed them and was influenced by Japanese woodblock prints. In a letter that was written to his brother, Theo, in 1888, he once said, “I envy the Japanese the extreme clarity of everything in their work. It is never dull and it never seems to be done in too much of a hurry. Their work is as simple as breathing, and they do a figure in a few sure strokes as if it were as easy as doing up your waistcoat.”

            The Starry Night shows van Gogh’s ongoing concern with death. In one of the letters he wrote to Theo in 1888, he said, “But to look at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots of a map representing towns and villages. Why, I ask myself, should the shining dots of the sky not be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? If we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.” Also, in this painting, there is a big cypress tree on the left. This cypress tree is one of the classical symbols for mourning, death, and afterlife. Moreover, because it is also the tallest and largest tree in the world, it also represents the connection between the earth and the sky.

            Another theme of this painting is a movement. Van Gogh uses thick, swirling brush strokes that give the impression of the movement. Also, around the stars and moon, he painted spiral-like shapes to express the lights. He also uses various shades of blue in the swirling patterns, which exaggerates the movement. He once said, “it often seems to me that the night is much more alive and ritually colored than the day.”

            Now, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night is one of my favorite paintings. Before I did this project, I did not know a lot about the details of this painting. However, once I researched about him and this painting, I became to like this painting more. The sky in this painting is very different that the normal sky in the summer of 1889, which shows that van Gogh used his imagination to create this sky. Furthermore, I love how he used various brush strokes and colors to express the movement of intense and vibrant night sky. In addition, I like how this painting is full of contrasts. The village at the bottom of the painting seems very quite and peaceful, but the sky on the top is very dynamic and energetic. Also, when I first look at this painting, I thought that this was just beautiful. But, once I got to know the background of the artist and the details of this painting, it seemed kind of sad. Now that I understand the depth of this artwork, I would like to visit Museum of Modern Art to see this painting in person to feel the emotion and movement of this painting.