Description of the painting by Van Gogh “Starry Night”

Assigned to Paris in 1875 as an art gallery dealer, Vincent van Gogh had no idea that the city would change his life. The young man was attracted by the exhibitions of the Louvre and the Luxembourg Museum, he began to study painting himself. True, a little carried away by religion, which became an outlet after an unhappy London love.

A few years later he finds himself in a Belgian village, but not as a dealer, but as a preacher. He sees that religion is not interested in alleviating human suffering and the decisive choice in his life is art.

It is worth noting that it is quite difficult to understand the motives and worldview of Van Gogh, despite the simplicity of his paintings. Biographers constantly emphasize his Dutch origin, the same as that of Rembrandt, forgetting that mental illness occurred in the artist's family. He cut his ears and drank absinthe, trying to find a connection between man and the outside world, he painted sunflowers, self-portraits and Starry Night.

Interestingly, the famous painting now in New York's Museum of Modern Art is not Van Gogh's first attempt at painting the sky at night. While in Arles, he created "Starry Night over the Rhone", but it was not at all what the author wanted. And the artist wished for fabulousness, unreality and an amazing world. In letters to his brother, he calls the desire to paint the stars and the night sky a lack of religion, says that the idea for the canvas was born to him a long time ago: cypresses, stars in the sky and, perhaps, a field of ripe wheat.

So, the picture, which is the fruit of the artist's imagination, was painted in Saint-Remy. “Starry Night” is still considered the most phantasmagoric and mysterious canvas by the artist today - the realness of the plot and its extraterrestrial character are so felt. Such drawings are usually made by children, depicting a spaceship or a rocket, and here - an artist who is so important to the essence of the world around him.

The fact that the picture was painted in a psychiatric hospital is no secret to anyone. Van Gogh at that time was tormented by bouts of insanity that were unpredictable and spontaneous. So "Starry Night" became a kind of therapy for him, helping to cope with the disease. Hence its emotionality, coloring and uniqueness - in hospital confinement there is always a lack of bright colors, sensations and experiences. Maybe that's why "Starry Night" has become one of the must-haves in the art world - critics of more than one generation discuss it, it attracts museum visitors, it is duplicated, embroidered on pillows ...

There are countless interpretations of the picture, starting with the number of stars depicted. There are eleven of them, in brightness and saturation they resemble the Star of Bethlehem. But here's the bad luck: in 1889, Van Gogh was no longer fond of theology and did not feel the need for religion, but the legend of the birth of Jesus greatly influenced his worldview. It was such a night, and such a mysterious radiance of the stars, that marked Christmas. Another moment of the biblical interpretation of the picture is associated with the Book of Genesis, namely with a quote from it: "... I had a dream again ... It had the sun and the moon, and eleven stars, and everyone bowed to me."

In addition to the opinions of researchers about the influence of religion on Van Gogh's work, there are meticulous geographers who still have not figured out what kind of settlement the artist wrote. Luck does not smile at astronomers either: they cannot understand which constellations are depicted on the canvas. And weather forecasters are also at a loss: how can the sky be swirling with whirlwinds if at night it is shrouded in serenity and cold indifference.

And only the only hint of a clue was given by the artist himself, writing in 1888: “Looking at the stars, I always start to dream. I ask myself: why should the bright dots in the sky be less accessible to us than the black dots on the map of France? So researchers are still deciding which part of the country of high fashion portrayed by Van Gogh.

What is so depicted in this picture, since it torments millions, forcing them to look for a clue? The village against the backdrop of the starry sky, and that's it. Is that all? The entire space is occupied by a blue spiral sky, the village is just a backdrop for the sky. The grandeur of the sky is somewhat softened by incredibly bright yellow stars, and the mystery of the "Starry Night" is given by cypresses, which are claimed by both heaven and earth.

Interestingly, the panorama of the village has features that are characteristic of both northern and southern French regions. It is called a generalized image of human settlements. And while he sleeps, a mystery takes place in the sky: the luminaries move, creating new worlds in the formidable and so attractive sky.

The moon and the stars are simply amazing, they are remembered for a long time: surrounded by huge halos in the form of spheres of various shades - gold, blue and mysterious white. Celestial bodies seem to radiate cosmic light, illuminating the blue-blue spiral sky. Interestingly, the undulating rhythm of the sky captures both the crescent of the moon and the brightest stars - everything is just like in the soul of Van Gogh himself. The spontaneity of Starry Night is actually ostentatious. The picture is thought out and composed very carefully: it seems balanced thanks to the cypresses and the harmonious selection of the palette.

Its color scheme cannot but surprise with a unique combination of rich dark blue (even the shade of the Moroccan night), rich and sky blue, to black green, chocolate brown and aquamarine. There are several shades of yellow, which the artist plays with as best he can, depicting traces of stars. It has the color of sunflowers, butter, egg yolk, pale yellow…. And the very composition of the picture: trees, crescent moon, stars and a town in the mountains is filled with truly cosmic energy...

The stars seem truly bottomless, the crescent gives the impression of the sun, the cypresses look more like flames, and the spiral swirls seem to hint at the Fibonacci sequence. Whatever the state of mind of Van Gogh at that time, "Starry Night" does not leave indifferent any person who has seen at least its reproduction.

Vincent van Gogh's "Starry Night" is considered by many to be the pinnacle of expressionism. It is curious that the artist himself considered it an extremely unsuccessful work, and it was written at the time of the master's mental discord. What is so unusual in this canvas - let's try to figure it out further in the review.

1. “Starry night” Van Gogh wrote in a mental hospital

The moment of creating the picture was preceded by a difficult emotional period in the life of the artist. A few months earlier, Van Gogh's friend Paul Gauguin had come to Arles to exchange paintings and experiences. But a fruitful creative tandem did not work out, and after a couple of months the artists finally quarreled. In the heat of emotional distress, Van Gogh cut off his earlobe and took it to a brothel to the prostitute Rachel, who favored Gauguin. So they did with a bull defeated in a bullfight. The matador got the severed ear of the animal.

Gauguin left soon after, and Van Gogh's brother Theo, seeing his condition, sent the unfortunate man to the hospital for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy. It was there that the expressionist created his famous painting.

2. "Starry night" is not a real landscape

Researchers are trying in vain to figure out which constellation is depicted in Van Gogh's painting. The artist took the plot from his imagination. Theo agreed at the clinic that a separate room was allocated for his brother, where he could create, but the mentally ill was not allowed out into the street.

3. Turbulence is depicted in the sky

Either the heightened perception of the world, or the sixth sense that opened it, forced the artist to depict turbulence. At that time, eddy currents could not be seen with the naked eye.

Although 4 centuries before Van Gogh, another brilliant artist Leonardo da Vinci depicted a similar phenomenon.

4. The artist considered his painting extremely unsuccessful

Vincent van Gogh believed that his "Starry Night" was not the best canvas, because it was not painted from life, which was very important to him. When the painting came to the exhibition, the artist rather disparagingly said about it: "Maybe she'll show others how to do better night effects than I did.". However, for the expressionists, who believed that the most important thing is the manifestation of feelings, "Starry Night" has become almost an icon.

5 Van Gogh Created Another Starry Night

There was another "Starry Night" in the Van Gogh collection. The stunning landscape cannot leave anyone indifferent. The artist himself, after creating this picture, wrote to his brother Theo: Why can't the bright stars in the sky be more important than the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, so we die to get to the stars.”.

Today, the works of this artist cost fabulous money, but

The abyss of stars is full.

The stars have no number, the abyss of the bottom.

Lomonosov M.V.

The starry sky as a symbol of infinity attracts and fascinates a person. It is impossible to take your eyes off the picture, which depicts a living, twisting sky in a whirlwind of eternal galactic motion. Doubts about who painted the painting "Starry Night" do not arise even among those who are poorly versed in art. Not a real, invented sky is written in rough, sharp strokes, emphasizing the spiral movement of the stars. No one had seen such a sky before Van Gogh. After Van Gogh, it is impossible to imagine the starry sky to others.

The history of the painting "Starry Night"

Vincent van Gogh painted one of the most famous paintings in the Saint-Remy-de-Provence hospital in 1889, one year before his death. The artist's mental disorder was accompanied by severe headaches. To somehow distract himself, Van Gogh painted, sometimes several paintings a day. The fact that the staff of the hospital allowed the unfortunate and no one at that time unknown artist to work was taken care of by his brother Theo.

Most of the landscapes of Provence with irises, haystacks and a wheat field, the artist painted from nature, looking through the window of a hospital ward into the garden. But "Starry Night" was created from memory, which was completely unusual for Van Gogh. It is possible that at night the artist made sketches and sketches, which he then used to create the canvas. Drawing from nature is complemented by the artist's fantasy, intertwining phantoms born in the imagination with fragments of reality.

Description of the painting by Van Gogh “Starry Night”

The actual view from the east window of the bedroom is closer to the viewer. Between the vertical line of cypresses growing on the edge of the wheat field and the diagonal of the sky is an image of a non-existent village.

The space of the picture is divided into two unequal parts. Most of it is given to the sky, the smaller part is given to people. Up, towards the stars, the top of the cypress is directed, similar to the tongues of a cold greenish-black flame. The spire of the church, towering between squat houses, also strives towards the sky. The cozy light of the burning windows is a bit like the glow of the stars, but against their background it seems weak and completely dim.

The life of the breathing sky is much richer and more interesting than human life. Unusually large stars radiate magical radiance. Spiral galactic eddies swirl with merciless swiftness. They draw the viewer in, take him into the depths of space, away from the cozy and sweet little world of people.

The center of the picture is occupied not by one stellar vortex, but by two. One is large, the other is smaller, and the larger one seems to be chasing the smaller one ... and draws it into itself, absorbs it without hope of salvation. The canvas evokes a feeling of anxiety and excitement in the viewer, despite the fact that the color scheme includes positive shades of blue, yellow, green. Vincent van Gogh's much more peaceful Starry Night Over the Rhone uses darker and gloomier tones.

Where is Starry Night kept?

The famous work, written in an asylum for the mentally ill, is kept at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The painting belongs to the category of priceless canvases. The price of the original painting "Starry Night" has not been determined. It cannot be bought with any money. This fact should not upset the true connoisseurs of painting. The original is available to any visitor to the museum. High-quality reproductions and copies, of course, do not have real energy, but they can convey part of the idea of ​​a brilliant artist.

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Vincent Van Gogh. Starlight Night. 1889 Museum of Modern Art, New York

Starlight Night. This is not just one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings. It is one of the most notable paintings in all of Western painting. What is so unusual about her?

Why, once you see it, you won't forget it? What kind of air vortices are depicted in the sky? Why are stars so big? And how did a painting that Van Gogh considered a failure become an “icon” for all expressionists?

I have collected the most interesting facts and mysteries of this picture. Which reveal the secret of her incredible attractiveness.

1 Starry Night Written In A Hospital For The Insane

The painting was painted during a difficult period in Van Gogh's life. Six months before that, cohabitation with Paul Gauguin ended badly. Van Gogh's dream of creating a southern workshop, a union of like-minded artists, did not come true.

Paul Gauguin has left. He could no longer stay close to the unbalanced friend. Quarrels every day. And once Van Gogh cut off his earlobe. And handed it to a prostitute who preferred Gauguin.

Exactly the same as they did with a downed bull in a bullfight. The severed ear of the animal was given to the victorious Matador.

Vincent Van Gogh. Self-portrait with cut off ear and pipe. January 1889 Zurich Kunsthaus Museum, Private collection of Niarchos. wikipedia.org

Van Gogh could not stand the loneliness and the collapse of his hopes for the workshop. His brother placed him in an asylum for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy. This is where Starry Night was written.

All his mental strength was strained to the limit. That's why the picture turned out so expressive. Bewitching. Like a bunch of bright energy.

2. “Starry night” is an imaginary, not a real landscape

This fact is very important. Because Van Gogh almost always worked from nature. This was the question over which they most often argued with Gauguin. He believed that you need to use the imagination. Van Gogh was of a different opinion.

But in Saint-Remy he had no choice. Patients were not allowed to go outside. Even work in his ward was forbidden. Brother Theo agreed with the authorities of the hospital that the artist was allocated a separate room for his workshop.

So in vain, researchers are trying to find out the constellation or determine the name of the town. Van Gogh took all this from his imagination.

3. Van Gogh depicted turbulence and the planet Venus

The most mysterious element of the picture. In a cloudless sky, we see eddy currents.

Researchers are sure that Van Gogh depicted such a phenomenon as turbulence. Which can hardly be seen with the naked eye.

Consciousness aggravated by mental illness was like a bare wire. To such an extent that Van Gogh saw what an ordinary mortal could not do.

Vincent Van Gogh. Starlight Night. Fragment. 1889 Museum of Modern Art, New York

400 years before that, another person realized this phenomenon. A person with a very subtle perception of the world around him. . He created a series of drawings with eddy currents of water and air.

Leonardo da Vinci. Flood. 1517-1518 Royal Art Collection, London. studiointernational.com

Another interesting element of the picture is the incredibly large stars. In May 1889, Venus could be observed in the south of France. She inspired the artist to depict bright stars.

You can easily guess which of Van Gogh's stars is Venus.

4. Van Gogh thought Starry Night was a bad painting.

The picture is written in a manner characteristic of Van Gogh. Thick long strokes. Which are neatly stacked next to each other. Juicy blue and yellow colors make it very pleasing to the eye.

However, Van Gogh himself considered his work a failure. When the picture got to the exhibition, he casually commented about it: “Maybe she will show others how to depict night effects better than I did.”

Such an attitude to the picture is not surprising. After all, it was not written from nature. As we already know, Van Gogh was ready to argue with others until he was blue in the face. Proving how important it is to see what you write.

Here is such a paradox. His “unsuccessful” painting became an “icon” for the expressionists. For whom the imagination was much more important than the outside world.

5. Van Gogh created another painting with a starry night sky

This is not the only Van Gogh painting with night effects. The year before, he had written Starry Night over the Rhone.

Vincent Van Gogh. Starry night over the Rhone. 1888 Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The Starry Night, which is kept in New York, is fantastic. The cosmic landscape overshadows the earth. We do not immediately even see the town at the bottom of the picture.

"Starry Night" today has become one of the main calling cards of the famous and so controversial Vincent van Gogh. Today, you can see the original canvas at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it has been on display since 1941. Repeatedly, the specific style of the canvas caused violent criticism, but those who delighted in it always turned out to be more.

History of creation

Like many other masterpieces, the author worked on The Starry Night in San Remy. At that time, Van Gogh was being treated in a hospital in this city. The artist's brother insisted that Vincent be allowed to paint. Quite often, the periods associated with treatment are considered the most fruitful. Doctors noted a significant improvement in health if the artist took up brushes and created.

The canvas "Starry Night" appeared in one of the periods of exacerbation of the disease. It is noteworthy that it was painted not from nature, but from memory, although the artist rarely resorted to this method of conveying the meaning of canvases in his work. Comparing with the works that were written before, one can note dynamism and maximum expressiveness, both in subject matter and in the use of colors.

Traditionally, a canvas of 920x730 mm, characteristic of Van Gogh, was used. Art connoisseurs recommend viewing the creation from a distance (from afar), arguing that its perception is greatly improved in this way.

Stylistics

The night landscape Vincent, as it were, passed through the filter of his consciousness and artistic creative vision. The main elements of the composition are the stars and the moon. That is why they are most pronounced, to attract maximum attention. The use of special techniques to create them added incredible dynamics and imaginary movement. Before the viewer appears not only the bewitching light, but also the depth of the endless night sky.

The foreground on the left is indicated by the outlines of cypress trees, which seem to reach for the sky. There is a complete feeling that the earth is alien to them and the only desire of the trees is to break away from the firmament in order to join the stars.

Particularly indifferent and indifferent to what is happening in the sky is a village located at the foot of the hill (bottom right of the picture). Made in especially gloomy colors, it seems to be lost among the main composition and is less remarkable.

General performance

It is impossible not to note the virtuosity of the author, who skillfully combined and combined radically opposite colors. The expression of distortion for which this canvas is famous is added by strokes applied using a unique technique. Looking at the composition as a whole, one can notice a unique balance of tones. Van Gogh managed to achieve a clear, most accurate arrangement of dark and light colors. For example, gloomy cypress trees skillfully balance an overly bright moon, which is why they are located in different angles.

In "Starry Night" the amazing depth of space is uniquely conveyed. Only the competent use of strokes, which differ in size and direction of application, as well as the use of carefully selected colors, made it possible to make the displayed space light and deep at the same time.

Despite the fact that different styles were used when writing the canvas, the finished picture is considered to be picturesque, and not linear. The linear contour lines of the depicted village rather convey earthiness, while the picturesque moon and sky speak of heavenlyness and the mystery of origin.

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