When Don McLean wrote his famous 1971 song Vincent, he opened with the line “Starry Starry Night”. This was of course a direct reference to the 1889 Van Gogh painting “The Starry Night”. Among the best loved paintings of Van Gogh, “The Starry Night” is today the most searched of his works on the internet and by many considered his greatest accomplishment.
Van Gogh was himself not initially thrilled with the painting. As he wrote to his brother Theo in a letter:
“
The first four canvases are studies without the effect of a whole that the others have … The olives with white clouds and background of mountains, also the moonrise and the night effect, these are exaggerations from the point of view of arrangement, their lines are warped as that of old wood.”
However, despite his own initial reservations to the painting, the roaring sky swirling over the quiet village provided plenty of inspiration for others. From Anne Sexton’s poem “
The Starry Night” to Giancarlo Scalia’s piano composition “
The Starry Night”, the inspiration provided by the painting has been universal and massive. The original “
The Starry Night” can be seen at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City. It should inspire a few visits and visitors as well.
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When discussing the works of Van Gogh, his mastery and very prolific use of colors are often mentioned. Indeed, in works like The Painter on his Way to Work, Sunflowers and Wheat Field with Crows are all examples of Van Gogh paintings using colors to great effect
However, when we look at his earlier works, they are very much dominated by dark earthen hues. Indeed, in works like The Potato Eaters, it is hard to find the characteristic color and feel that made his works famous.
The change in coloring came after Van Gogh went to Paris in early 1886. Upon experiencing the works of the likes of Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli and Paul Cezanne, Van Gogh immediately started to experiment with a much lighter palette. In Paris, Van Gogh also met Monet, Sisley, Degas and Pissarro and got further inspiration in his use of brush and color. Another influence for Van Gogh in Paris was Paul Signac and in style of pointillism. Van Gogh himself experimented with the style and incorporated elements from it into his own trademark painting style. One last important meeting for Van Gogh in Paris was with Paul Gauguin whom he met and befriended
It was through these many inspiring artists and their work that Van Gogh himself opened up his art and style and let himself develop as an artist. Without Paris, Van Gogh might never have found his own light palette, and we might never have experienced the full works of Van Gogh that this development brought with it
From Paris, Van Gogh brought his new-found inspiration and moved to Arles, Saint Remy and finally Auvers-sur-Oise. Most of Van Gogh’s most masterful creations were painted at this time, with his art influenced by Paris and the artists he met there. Without Paris, there could be no Café Terrace at Night, no Starry Night, no The Sower. Van Gogh indeed found his bright palette in the City of Lights.
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As is well known, Van Gogh did not sell a lot of paintings during his own lifetime. However, at an exhibition in Brussels in 1890, the painting “The Red Vineyard” was sold to collector and impressionist Anna Boch. As such, it must be considered among the most successful paintings for Van Gogh during his own lifetime.
Van Gogh painted “The Red Vineyard” in November of 1888 while he was staying in Arles. The painting featured a heavy use of red and yellow colors to portray the red wines and the power of the sun. The yellow rays of the sun indeed fill up the whole sky and are reflected in the waters of the small pond in the right of the painting as well. The yellow field in the background complements this yellow impression. The brush strokes of the painting are typical Van Gogh, with deep strokes contrasting with each other. We also see that Van Gogh has set an aura around the sun, as we also see in later works like “The Starry Night” around the stars and moon.
“The Red Vineyard” was later sold to Russian collector Sergei Shchukin who also bought “The Night Café” Both were later nationalized and passed on to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow.
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The works of Van Gogh are among other justly famous for the vivid use of color by the artist. Indeed, from his famous Sunflowers to “The Night Café” and Wheatfield with Crows”, the use of strong colors throughout is defining for his work. Yet, if one looks at the early works of Van Gogh were not dominated by such strong colors. Rather, in the period 1883 – 1886 when Van Gogh was just beginning to paint using oil colors, his work was more dominated by dark and somber earthy tones. His main subject in this period was the peasants of the Dutch countryside and the hard life they led. Van Gogh wanted to portray this life and contrast it with the life emerging in the cities.
The main work of this period is also a good example of Van Gogh paintings during this period. Thus, “The Potato Eaters” from 1885 shows a group of peasants sitting together in the evening having some food. The colors are dark, the people unattractive and the realism of the scene uncanny. The earthy tones of this period of work certainly dominate the painting. The subject focus is on the peasant life and its hardships, as was indeed general for the period.
Van Gogh also produced some other works of note during this period. This includes works life “Still Life with Straw Hat and Pipe” as well as “Skull of a Skeleton with a Burning Cigarette”, both of which we have previously discussed on this blog. They all exemplify the early mastery of Van Gogh, yet as we know now, there was so much more to come.
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Among the most popular Van Gogh paintings, we find The Starry Night. With its dramatic swirling night sky above a quiet village, it is among the most celebrated paintings by Van Gogh. However, it was not Van Gogh’s first full depiction of the night sky. Rather, in 1888 while staying in Arles he painted Starry Night Over the Rhone, a similar yet quite different depiction of the night sky.
The similarities are clear. We are looked at a star filled night sky over a quiet town. Rich dark blue colors are used to depict the night and the special atmosphere it brings. However, the similarities end here. Because, while The Starry Night is dramatic and in constant motion, the night sky in Starry Night Over the Rhone is quiet and peaceful. Indeed, in this painting we see the peaceful town of Arles on the banks of the Rhone. A couple of lovers is walking on the banks Rhone, while the lights of the city are reflected in the river. Above, the sky is illuminated by numerous stars that twinkle. It is an idyllic and peaceful scene, a place for lovers to go, quite unlike The Starry Night
.
The differences in the nature of these two night paintings can be traced back to when they were painted and the mental state of Van Gogh at that time. Starry Night Over the Rhone was painted after Van Gogh had arrived in Arles. He was optimistic and content, using his newfound mastery of colors to depict the beauty he saw around him. The Starry Night, on the other hand, was painted in 1889 while Van Gogh was at the hospital at Saint-Paul-de-Mausole. As such, his mental state was much less stable at this time, his mind much more in turmoil. This state of mind is clearly reflected in the sky of The Starry Night.
Van Gogh himself wrote to his brother Theo about his sketch for Starry Night Over the Rhone:
“Included a small sketch of a 30 square canvas - in short the starry sky painted by night, actually under a gas jet. The sky is aquamarine, the water is royal blue, the ground is mauve. The town is blue and purple. The gas is yellow and the reflections are russet gold descending down to green-bronze. On the aquamarine field of the sky the Great Bear is a sparkling green and pink, whose discreet paleness contrasts with the brutal gold of the gas. Two colorful figurines of lovers in the foreground.”
The original Starry Night Over the Rhone can today be found at the Musee D’Orsay in Paris, France.
The Café Terrace was the first painting in which Van Gogh used a starry background. He later on painted star filled skies in both Starry Night Over the Rhone, and the Starry Night, painted a year later. When doing The Café Terrace at Night, Van Gogh worked in a flurry, using many of the techniques he also employed in his drawings. The end result is definitely among the most beautiful paintings he made, full of the light and peace he sought for but never quite found for himself.
With The Starry Night, painted in 1889, Vincent van Gogh left behind the Impressionist doctrine of truth to nature in favour of restless feeling and intense colour, as in this highly charged picture, a touchstone for all subsequent Expressionist painting. The composition of The Starry Night can generally be divided into three specific sections, each adding their own aspects and power to the impression derived from the painting.
