As we mention the great artist Van Gogh, his wonderful paintings will come into our mind, such as Sunflowers, Irises, Saint-Remy, Starry Night over the Rhone, Cafe at Night, Starry Night etc. But now I would like to introduce one of his masterpieces--Starry Night.
The Starry Night was completed near the mental asylum of Saint-Remy, 13 months before Van Gogh''s death at the age of 37. Vincent''''s mental instability is legend. He attempted to take Paul Gauguin''''s life and later committed himself to several asylums in hopes of an unrealized cure.
Van Gogh painted furiously and The Starry Night vibrates with rockets of burning yellow while planets gyrate like cartwheels. The hills quake and heave, yet the cosmic gold fireworks that swirl against the blue sky are somehow restful.
This painting is probably the most popular of Vincent''s works.
The Starry Night was completed near the mental asylum of Saint-Remy, 13 months before Van Gogh''s death at the age of 37. Vincent''s mental instability is legend. He attempted to take Paul Gauguin''s life and later committed himself to several asylums in hopes of an unrealized cure.
Van Gogh painted furiously and The Starry Night vibrates with rockets of burning yellow while planets gyrate like cartwheels. The hills quake and heave, yet the cosmic gold fireworks that swirl against the blue sky are somehow restful.
Actually, The Starry Night was not Van Gogh''s first depiction of a night sky. In Arles, he had been proud of his painting of the stars and the reflection of the lights of the town in the River Rhone, one of the first results of a plan intimated to Emile Bernard in April 1888. He wanted to paint a starry night as an example of working from the imagination, which could add to the value of a painting: we may succeed in creating a more exciting and comforting nature than we can discern with a single glimpse of reality, he wrote. In a letter to Theo of the same date, Vincent was more explicit about the motif: a starry night with cypresses or possibly above a field of ripe wheat.
With his Starry Night, painted in Saint-Remy, he fulfilled that promise and did so at a time when he was more determined than ever to prove himself the equal of his fellow artists.
This painting is probably the most popular of Vincent''s works.