Katara Powell
Professor Celeste Fraser Delgado
Hum-303-10-1501 Modern Current in the Humanities
2 May 2015 The Starry night is an oil painting by Dutch past-impressions painter Vincent Van Gogh. The oil painting was created in June, 1889.The visual of the painting shows a view from the east facing a window from his asylum room. The oil canvas painting that’s 73.7x 92.1cm consist of Curving, swirling lines of hills, mountains, and the sky, the brilliantly contrasting blues and yellows, the large flame-like cypress tree and the thickly layered brushstrokes of Vicent Van Gogh’s. In Starry night contoured terms are a mean of expression and they are used to convey emotion. Many feel that Van Gogh’s turbulent guest to overcome his illness is reflected in the dimness of the night sky. The village is painted with dark colors but the brightly lit windows create a sense of comfort. The village is peaceful in comparison to the dramatic night sky and the silence of the night can almost be felt in Starry night. The steeple dominates the village and symbolizes unity in the town. In terms of composition the church steeple gives impression of size and isolation. Vincent Van Gogh was known to be one of the famous and well renowned painters in the history of art. His works were considered by the world, the work of a genius. One of his master pieces, which brought him to the portals of fame and honor was the widely known and esteemed. The painting is exaggerated, as stated by Van Gogh himself. It’s like a replica of a beautiful night. A viewer might imagine himself in the scene observing the night in peace and amazement. The night sky keeps the viewer’s eyes moving about the painting while following the curves and creating a dot pattern. There are rolling hills that generate an aura of serenity from the town structures. The silent yet bright and fiery dark shades from the window of the structures could spark a viewer’s curiosity of the wonderful dark and Starry skies. Although Starry night is one of the best known and most reproduced pieces of art in the world today, most people can’t really tell you or explain the meaning behind the painting. Van Gogh used his exaggerate and expressive brush strokes to visualize the way he felt inside and reveal his personal impressions of whatever subject he happened to paint. Through Starry night Van Gogh expresses a strong feeling of hope. He does this through bright lights of the stars shinning down over the dark landscape at night.(artble.com) Van Goghs choice of color in Starry night has much been debated, particularly the dominance of yellow in this and other late works Van Gogh’s use of white and yellow creates a spiral effect and draws attention to the sky. Vertical lines such as the Cypress tree and church tower softly break up the composition without retracting from the powerful night sky depicted in Starry night. The artist choice of dark blues and greens were complemented with touches of mint green showing the reflection of the moon. The buildings in the centre of the painting are small blocks of yellow, oranges, and red to the left of the church. The dominance of the blue in Starry night is balanced by the orange of the night, whereby colors, are used to suggest emotion (artble.com) Vincent Van Gogh painted Starry night in 1889, on year before his death. Although the oil Canvas paintings possesses multiple interpretation one evident theme is Van Gogh’s communication of vastness (csus.ed) The various interpretation of Starry night came from Van Gogh’s influences with poetry,personal religious conflict, astronomy, depression, all which convey Van Gogh’s expressionism in creating his unique view of the reality (csus.ed). Van Gogh was a huge fan of nighttime and his passion for this was depicted in Starry night over the Rhone and café terrace at night (csuc.ed) Van Gogh night sky is brimming with energy and it contrast with the silent village below (artble.com). The town he depicts in Starry night