"I still passionately need - I will allow myself this word - in religion. Therefore, I left the house at night and began to draw stars," Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo.
It is worth going to New York at least for the sake of meeting her, with Van Gogh's Starry Night.
Here I want to give the text of my work on the analysis of this picture. Initially, I wanted to rework the text so that it is more in line with the article for the blog, but due to failures in the Word and lack of time, I will post it in its original form, which was hardly restored after the program crashed. I hope even the original text will be at least somewhat interesting.
Vincent Van Gogh(1853-1890) - a prominent representative of post-impressionism. Despite the difficult life path and the rather late formation of Van Gogh as an artist, he was distinguished by perseverance and diligence, which helped him achieve great success in mastering the technique of drawing and painting. In the ten years of his life devoted to art, Van Gogh went from an experienced viewer (he began his career as an art dealer, so he was familiar with many works) to a master of drawing and painting. This short period became the most vivid and emotional in the life of the artist.
The personality of Van Gogh is shrouded in mystery in the representation of modern culture. Although Van Gogh left a great epistolary legacy (an extensive correspondence with his brother Theo van Gogh), descriptions of his life were compiled much later than his death and often contained fictional stories and distorted attitudes towards the artist. In this regard, there was an image of Van Gogh as a crazy artist who cut off his ear in a fit, and later shot himself completely. This image attracts the viewer with the secret creativity of the crazy artist, balancing on the verge of genius and madness and mystery. But if we examine the facts of Van Gogh's biography, his detailed correspondence, then many myths, including those about his madness, are debunked.
Van Gogh's work became available to the general public only after his death. At first, his work was attributed to different directions, but later they were included in post-impressionism. Van Gogh's handwriting is unlike anything else, so even with other representatives of post-impressionism it cannot be compared. This is a special way of applying a stroke, using different stroke techniques in one work, a certain color, expression, compositional features, means of expression. It is this characteristic style of Van Gogh that we will analyze using the example of the painting "Starry Night" in this work.
Formal stylistic analysis
The Starry Night is one of Van Gogh's most famous works. The painting was painted in June 1889 in Saint-Remy, since 1941 it has been kept at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The picture is painted in oil on canvas, dimensions - 73x92 cm, the format is a horizontally elongated rectangle, this is an easel painting. Due to the peculiarity of the technique, the picture should be viewed at a sufficient distance.
Looking at the picture, we see a night landscape. Most of the canvas is occupied by the sky - the stars, the moon, large depicted on the right, and the night sky in motion. On the right in the foreground, trees rise, and on the left below is a town or village hidden in the trees. The background is dark hills on the horizon line, gradually becoming higher from left to right. The picture, based on the described plot, undoubtedly belongs to the landscape genre. We can say that the artist brings to the fore the expressiveness and some conventionality of the depicted, since the main role in the work is played by expressive distortion (color, in the technique of strokes, etc.).
The composition of the picture as a whole is balanced - on the right, dark trees below, and on the left, a bright yellow moon above. Because of this, the composition tends to be diagonal, including because of the hills increasing from right to left. In it, the sky prevails over the earth, as it occupies most of the canvas, that is, the upper part prevails over the lower. At the same time, there is also a spiral structure in the composition, which gives the initial impetus to the movement, expressed in a spiraling stream in the sky in the center of the composition. This spiral sets in motion both part of the trees, and the stars, and the rest of the sky, the moon, and even the lower part of the composition - the village, trees, hills. Thus, the composition from the statics familiar to the landscape genre turns into a dynamic, fantastic plot that captures the viewer. Therefore, in the work it is impossible to single out the background and clear planning. The traditional background, the background, ceases to be a background, as it is included in the overall dynamics of the picture, and the foreground, if we take the trees and the village, being included in the movement in a spiral, ceases to stand out. The planness of the picture is vague and unsteady due to the combination of spiral and diagonal dynamics. Based on the compositional solution, it can be assumed that the artist's angle of view is directed from bottom to top, since most of the canvas is occupied by the sky.
Undoubtedly, in the process of perceiving a picture, the viewer is involved in interaction with the image. This is obvious from the described compositional solution and techniques, that is, the dynamics of the composition and its direction. And also thanks to the color scheme of the picture - the color scheme, bright accents, the palette, the technique of applying strokes.
Deep space is created in the picture. This is achieved due to the color solution, composition and movement of strokes, the difference in the size of strokes. Including due to the difference in the size of the depicted - large trees, a small village and trees near it, smaller hills on the horizon, a large moon and stars. The color solution builds depth due to the dark foreground of the trees, the muted colors of the village and the trees around it, the bright color accents of the stars and the moon, the dark hills on the horizon, set off by the light strip of the sky.
The picture does not meet the criterion in many ways linearity, and most expresses just picturesqueness. Since all forms are expressed through color and strokes. Although in the image of the lower plan - the town, trees and hills, the distinction is used by separate contour dark lines. It can be said that the artist deliberately combines some linear aspects in order to emphasize the difference between the upper and lower planes of the picture. Therefore, the upper plan, the most important compositionally, in terms of meaning and in terms of color and technical solutions, is the most expressive and picturesque. This part of the picture is literally sculpted with color and strokes, it lacks contour or any linear elements.
Concerning flatness And depths, then the picture gravitates towards depth. This is expressed in the color scheme - contrasts, darker or smoky shades, in technique - due to the different direction of strokes, their sizes, in composition and dynamics. At the same time, the volume of objects is not clearly expressed, as it is hidden by large strokes. Volumes are only outlined by separate contour strokes or are created by color combinations of strokes.
The role of light in the picture is not significant in comparison with the role of color. But we can say that the light sources in the picture are the stars and the moon. This can be traced by the lightening of the settlement and the trees in the valley and the darker part of the valley on the left, by the dark trees in the foreground and the hills darkening on the horizon, especially located on the right under the moon.
The silhouettes of the depicted are closely related to each other. They are inexpressive due to the fact that they are written in large strokes, for the same reason the silhouettes are not valuable in themselves. They cannot be taken separately from the entire canvas. Therefore, we can talk about the desire for integrity within the picture, achieved by technology. In this regard, we can talk about the generalization of what is depicted on the canvas. There is no detail due to the scale of the depicted (far located, therefore, small towns, trees, hills) and the technical solution of the picture - drawing with large strokes, dividing the depicted into separate colors with such strokes. Therefore, it cannot be said that the picture conveys a variety of textures of the depicted. But generalized, rough and exaggerated due to the technical solution of the painting, a hint at the difference in shapes, textures, volumes is given by the direction of the strokes, their size and the actual color.
Color in "Starry Night" plays a major role. The composition, dynamics, volumes, silhouettes, depth, light obey the color. The color in the picture is not an expression of volume, but a semantic element. Thus, due to the color expression, the radiance of the stars and the moon is exaggerated. And this color expression creates not just an emphasis on them, but gives them significance within the picture, creates their semantic content. The color in the picture is not so much optically accurate as it is expressive. With the help of color combinations, an artistic image, expressiveness of the canvas is created. The picture is dominated by pure colors, the combinations of which create shades, volumes and contrasts that affect perception. The borders of color spots are distinguishable and expressive, since each stroke creates a color spot, distinguishable in contrast with neighboring strokes. Van Gogh focuses on smears-spots, crushing the volumes of the depicted. So he achieves greater expression of color and form and achieves dynamics in the picture.
Van Gogh creates certain colors and their shades by combining color spots-strokes that complement each other. The darkest parts of the canvas are not reduced to black, but only to a combination of dark shades of different colors, creating in perception a very dark shade close to black. The same happens with the lightest places - there is no pure white, but a combination of strokes of white with shades of other colors, in combination with which white ceases to be the most important in perception. Highlights and reflections are not pronounced brightly, as they are smoothed out by color compounds.
We can say that in the picture there are rhythmic repetitions of color combinations. The presence of such combinations both in the image of the valley and the settlement, and in the sky creates the integrity of the perception of the picture. Various combinations of shades of blue among themselves and with other colors throughout the canvas show that it is the main color that develops in the picture. An interesting contrasting combination of blue with shades of yellow. The texture of the surface is not smooth, but embossed due to the volume of strokes, in some places even with gaps on a blank canvas. The strokes are well distinguishable, significant for the expression of the picture, its dynamics. Strokes are long, sometimes larger or smaller. Applied in different ways, but rather thick paint.
Returning to binary oppositions, it must be said that the picture is characterized openness of form. Since the landscape is not fixated on itself, on the contrary, it is open, it can be expanded beyond the borders of the canvas, which is why the integrity of the picture is not violated. The picture is inherent atectonic beginning. Because all the elements of the picture strive for unity, they cannot be taken out of the context of the composition or canvas, they do not have their own integrity. All parts of the picture are subject to a single plan and mood and do not have autonomy. This is expressed technically in composition, in dynamics, in color patterns, in the technical solution of strokes. Picture presents incomplete (relative) clarity depicted. Since only parts of the depicted objects (houses of the tree settlement) are visible, many of them overlap each other (trees, field houses), scales are changed to achieve semantic accents (the stars and the moon are hypertrophied).
Iconographic and iconological analysis
Actually the plot of "Starry Night" or the type of landscape depicted is difficult to compare with the paintings of other artists, all the more to put in a number of similar works. Landscapes depicting night effects were not used by the Impressionists, since lighting effects at different times of daylight hours and work in the open air were just important for them. Post-Impressionists, if they turned to landscapes not from nature (like Gauguin, who often paints from memory), they still chose daylight hours and used new ways of depicting lighting effects and individual techniques. Therefore, the image of night landscapes can be called a feature of Van Gogh's work (“Night cafe terrace”, “Starry night”, “Starry night over the Rhone”, “Church in Auvers”, “Road with cypresses and stars”).
Characteristic in Van Gogh's night landscapes is the use of color contrasts to emphasize important elements of the picture. The most commonly used contrast shades of blue and yellow. Night landscapes were mostly painted by Van Gogh from memory. In this regard, they paid more attention not to the reproduction of the real lighting effects seen or of interest to the artist, but emphasized the expressiveness and unusualness of light and color effects. Therefore, the lighting and color effects are exaggerated, which gives them an additional semantic load in the paintings.
If we turn to the iconological method, then in the study of the "Starry Night" one can trace additional meanings in the number of stars on the canvas. Some researchers associate the eleven stars in Van Gogh's painting with the Old Testament story of Joseph and his eleven brothers. “Listen, I had a dream again,” he said. “In it were the sun and the moon, and eleven stars, and they all bowed down to me.” Genesis 37:9. Given Van Gogh's knowledge of religion, his study of the Bible and his attempts to become priests, the inclusion of this story as an additional meaning is justified. Although it is difficult to consider this reference to the Bible as determining the semantic content of the picture, because the stars make up only part of the canvas, and the depicted town, hills and trees are not connected with the biblical story.
biographical method
Considering the "Starry Night", it is difficult to do without a biographical method of research. Van Gogh wrote it in 1889, when he was in the Saint-Remy hospital. There, at the request of Theo van Gogh, Vincent was allowed to paint and draw in oils during periods of improvement in his condition. Periods of improvement were accompanied by a creative upsurge. Van Gogh devoted all the available time to work in the open air and wrote quite a lot.
It is noteworthy that "Starry Night" was written from memory, which is unusual for the process of Van Gogh's creativity. This circumstance can also emphasize the special expressiveness, dynamics and coloring of the picture. On the other hand, these features of the picture can also be explained by the mental state of the artist during his stay in the hospital. The circle of his communication and the possibilities of action were limited, and the attacks occurred with varying degrees of intensity. And only during periods of improvement did he have the opportunity to do what he loved. During that period, painting became a particularly important way of self-realization for Van Gogh. Therefore, the canvases become brighter, more expressive and dynamic. The artist puts a lot of emotion into them, as this is the only possible way to express it.
It is interesting that Van Gogh, who describes in detail his life, reflections and his work in letters to his brother, mentions the "Starry Night" only in passing. And although by that time Vincent had already departed from the church and church dogmas, he writes to his brother: “I still passionately need - I will allow myself this word - religion. Therefore, I went out of the house at night and began to draw stars.
Comparing "Starry Night" with earlier works, we can say that it is among the most expressive, emotional and exciting. Tracing the change in the manner of writing throughout his work, there is a noticeable increase in expressiveness, color load, and dynamics in Van Gogh's works. "Starry Night over the Rhone", written in 1888 - a year before the "Starry Night", is not yet filled with that culmination of emotions, expressiveness, color richness and technical solutions. You can also notice that the paintings following the "Starry Night" became more expressive, dynamic, emotionally heavy, more vivid in color. The most striking examples are "Church in Auvers", "Wheat field with ravens". This is how you can designate "Starry Night" as the last and most expressive, dynamic, emotional and colorful period of Van Gogh's work.
Vincent van Gogh is a rather mysterious person, his creative path went through alcohol addiction and stay in a mental hospital.
History of creation
The painting "Starry Night" was created by the author in 1889 in the Saint-Remy-de-Provence hospital. This painting is considered a masterpiece. It is located in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. While in the clinic, the artist painted about 150 works. Van Gogh's brother Theo took care of permission to paint in the hospital. To distract himself from the attacks that tormented the author, he could paint several pictures in a day. This work was created by Van Gogh from memory, and not from nature. This makes it stand out from the rest of the paintings.
Painting composition
In the painting "Starry Night" a special place is occupied by the crescent and stars. They immediately grab the attention of the viewer due to the special technique of performance. The light emanating from the moon and stars creates the appearance of a spiral, which only emphasizes the unsurpassed beauty of the heavenly bodies in the picture. In his creation, the artist tries to combine unattainable greatness (stars, moon) and earthly life (cypress, village). Cypress trees seem to want to touch the sky, to join the gentle dance of the luminaries. Due to the peculiarity of the strokes, it seems that the heavenly bodies are moving in the sky.
On the right side, the artist depicted the village. The blue color of the roofs reflects the moonlight even more. The picture is full of mystery and splendor, even though dark colors appear in it. But against the blue background, the yellow light of the stars and the moon looks amazing.
Technique, performance, techniques
The technique of performing the night sky, the transfer of all the necessary shades at the same time, was not yet mastered in this period. Vincent van Gogh was practically a pioneer in this field of art. The Dutch artist uses a combination of dark blue, different shades of yellow, while adding dark green, heavenly, brown shades. The color scheme impresses with its unusualness. All colors unite and complement each other, while emphasizing the subtlety and depth of the picture.
The canvas depicts 11 stars and a waning month. So the artist wanted to draw a parallel with Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles.
The author of Starry Night was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. Prior to that, he led an immoral lifestyle, abused absinthe, worked hard. These factors led to mental disorders. In 1888, while intoxicated and quarreling with his friend Paul Gauguin, the artist cut off his earlobe. The artist's neighbors complained about him to the mayor's office because of the constant noise. So he ended up in the clinic.
The Starry Night was painted in 1889 and today is one of Van Gogh's most recognizable paintings. Since 1941, this work of art has been located in New York, in the famous Museum of Modern Art. Vincent van Gogh created this painting in San Remy on a traditional 920x730mm canvas. "Starry Night" is written in a rather specific style, so for optimal perception it is better to look at it from afar.
Stylistics
This painting depicts a landscape at night, which has passed through the "filter" of the artist's creative vision. The main elements of the "Starry Night" are the stars and the moon. It is they who are depicted most pronouncedly and in the first place attract attention. In addition, Van Gogh used a special technique to create the moon and stars, which makes them look more dynamic, as if they are constantly moving, carrying a bewitching light through the limitless starry sky.
In the foreground of the "Starry Night" (left), tall trees (cypresses) are depicted, which stretch from the earth to the sky and stars. They seem to want to leave the firmament and join the dance of the stars and the moon. To the right of the picture is an unremarkable village, which lies at the foot of the hills in the stillness of the night, it is indifferent to the radiance and rapid movement of the stars.
General execution
In general, when considering this picture, one can feel the virtuoso work of the artist with color. At the same time, the expressive distortion is quite well matched with the help of a unique technique of strokes and color combinations. There is also a balance of light and dark tones on the canvas: at the bottom left, dark trees compensate for the high brightness of the yellow moon, which is located in the opposite corner. The main dynamic element of the picture is a spiral curl almost in the middle of the canvas. It gives dynamics to each element of the composition, it is also worth noting that the stars and the moon seem to be more mobile than the rest.
"Starry Night" also has a stunning depth of display space, which is achieved through the competent use of strokes of different sizes and directions, as well as the overall color combination of the picture. Another factor that helps create depth in a painting is the use of objects of different sizes. So, the town is far away and it is small in the picture, and the trees are the opposite - they are small compared to the village, but are located close and therefore they take up quite a lot of space in the picture. The dark foreground and the light moon in the background are a tool for creating depth with color.
The painting is more of a pictorial style than a linear one. This is due to the fact that all elements of the canvas are created using strokes and color. Although when creating the village and the hills, Van Gogh applied contour lines. Apparently, such linear elements were used in order to emphasize the difference between objects of earthly and heavenly origin as best as possible. Thus, Van Gogh's image of the sky turned out to be extremely picturesque and dynamic, and the village and hills - more calm, linear and measured.
In "Starry Night" color prevails, while the role of light is not so noticeable. The main sources of illumination are the stars and the moon, this can be determined by the reflections that are located on the buildings of the town and trees at the foot of the hills.
History of writing
The painting "Starry Night" was painted by Van Gogh during the period of treatment in the hospital of Saint-Remy. At the request of his brother, Van Gogh was allowed to paint if his health improved. Such periods arose quite often, and during this time the artist painted a number of paintings. "Starry Night" is one of them, and it is interesting that this picture was created from memory. This method was used by Van Gogh quite rarely and not typical of this artist. If we compare "Starry Night" with the early works of the artist, we can say that it is a more expressive and dynamic creation of Van Gogh. However, after it was written, the coloring, emotional load, dynamics and expression on the artist's canvases only increased.
Original painting by Vincent van Gogh Starry Night. Description, photo, history, year of writing, dimensions, analysis, where it is located.
Starry Night is an 1889 oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Its size: 92 cm x 73 cm. To date, the painting is in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, USA. However, she often "travels" and is regularly exhibited in various museums in Europe.
This painting is one of Van Gogh's most famous and beloved masterpieces. The picture is immediately recognizable, it inspires poets, directors, musicians, designers and artists. Her writing style is absolutely unique.
Vincent van Gogh created "Starry Night" in June 1889 when he was admitted to the hospital at the monastery of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, where he stayed long enough for psychiatric treatment. At that time the artist was spontaneous and unpredictable.
In his letters to his brother, Van Gogh wrote: “... I like to do something difficult. But even this does not help me not to feel my great need for religion and preaching, so I go out at night to paint the stars.
The artist was cramped within the framework of our world. The picture is an idealized landscape, more vivid and non-standard. Powerful celestial whirlwinds, stars and a crescent-shaped moon, in the picture, move, in one undulating motion, over a small town. On the right is an olive grove and hills, on the left is a cypress, striving into the sky, like a flame. “... we use death to travel to the stars,” the artist wrote. Despite the fact that the picture absorbed the state of hopelessness experienced by the artist at the time of its writing, the composition of the picture was not selected spontaneously, but rather carefully. Trees frame the starry sky and bring balance to the composition.
Eleven stars in the picture is a separate topic of discussion. It is likely that the biblical story of Joseph influences the composition. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down before me” (Genesis 37:9).
Thirteen months after painting Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh committed suicide.
Despite (or perhaps because of) all the interpretations and hidden meanings, the painting remains one of the most important works of art of the 19th century.
Artists around the world are constantly copying Van Gogh's Starry Night, Saint-Remy. This is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world of fine arts, and various reproductions of this canvas adorn the interiors of many houses. The circumstances of the creation of "Starry Night", where and how it was painted, as well as the artist's former unfulfilled dreams, make this work especially significant for Van Gogh's work.
Vincent van Gogh "Starry Night, Saint Remy" 1889
When Van Gogh was a little younger, he was going to become a pastor and missionary, he wanted to help poor people with the word of God. Religious education in some way helped him create "Starry Night". In 1889, when the night sky was painted with stars sparkling in the moonlight, the artist wasin the French hospital Saint-Remy.
Count the stars - there are eleven of them.We can say that the creation of the picture was influenced by the ancient legend of Joseph from the Old Testament. “Behold, I had another dream: behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars worship me,” we read in the Book of Genesis.
Van Gogh wrote: “I still crave religion. That is why I went out at night from the house and began to draw the night sky with stars.
This well-known picture of the master demonstrates to the viewer the great power of the artist, as well as his individual and unique style of painting and his special vision of the whole world around him.The painting "Starry Night" is the most outstanding work of art of the mid-19th century.
There are many reasons why Starry Night is so appealing to people, and it's not just the saturation of the blues and yellows. Many details in the picture and, first of all, the stars are deliberately enlarged. It's like an embodied vision of the artist: he surrounds each of the stars with a ball, and we observe their rotational movement.
Just as the stars bend on their way down to the hilly horizon, so Van Gogh will be inclined to leave the familiar world by stepping over the threshold of the hospital. The windows of the buildings are reminiscent of the houses where he lived as a child, and the spire of the church depicted by Van Gogh in The Starry Night recalls that he once wanted to devote his life to religious activities.
The main "pillars" of the composition are the seemingly huge cypress trees on the hill (foreground), the pulsating crescent and stars of a "radiant", bright yellow color. A city lying in a valley may even go unnoticed at first, because the main emphasis is on the greatness of the universe.
The crescent of the moon, the stars move in a single undulating rhythm. The trees depicted in this picture greatly balance the overall composition.
The vortex in the sky reminds of the Milky Way, galaxies, cosmic harmony, expressed in both ecstatic and blissfully calm movement of all bodies in dark blue space. In the picture, these are eleven incredibly huge stars and a large, but waning month, reminiscent of the biblical story about Christ and the 12 apostles.
Geographers are trying in vain to determine what kind of settlement is depicted at the bottom of the canvas, and astronomers are trying to find the constellations in the picture. The image of the night sky is written off from his own consciousness. If usually the night sky is serene and cold-indifferent, then in Van Gogh it is swirling with whirlwinds, full of secret life.
Thus, the artist hints that the imagination is omnipotent to create a more amazing nature than the one we see in the real world.
"Starlight Night"
When the darkness of the Night falls on the Earth -
Love lights up the stars in the sky...
Perhaps someone does not notice them,
And, someone observes them through a telescope -
There he is looking for life, studying science ...
And someone just looks - and Dreams!
Sometimes, a fabulous Dream happens,
But still, he continues to believe ...
His star is alive, it shines,
He answers all his questions...
There, among thousands of stars - Vincent has a Star!
She never fades away!
She burns all over the universe -
She sets the planet on fire!
So that, in the midst of the dark Night, it suddenly becomes brighter -
So that the light of the Star shines like the Sun in the Soul of people!
Vincent's sister
