One of the most famous paintings is “ Starry night» Van Gogh - currently located in one of the halls of the Museum contemporary art in New York. It was created in 1889 and represents one of the most famous works great artist.
The history of the painting
"Starry Night" is one of the most famous and popular works fine art art of the 19th century century. The painting was painted in 1889 and it perfectly conveys the unique and inimitable style of the greatest
In 1888, after Paul was attacked and his earlobe was cut off, Vincent Van Gogh was sadly diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. This year great artist lived in France, in the town of Arles. After the residents of this city turned to the mayor’s office with a collective complaint against the “violent” painter, Vincent Van Gogh ended up in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a village for famous masterpiece fine arts.
"Starry Night", Van Gogh. Description of the painting
A distinctive feature of the painting is its incredible dynamism, which eloquently conveys the emotional experiences of the great artist. Images in moonlight at that time they had their own ancient traditions, and yet not a single artist could convey such strength and power natural phenomenon like Vincent Van Gogh. “Starry Night” was not written spontaneously, like many of the master’s works, it was carefully thought out and composed.
The incredible energy of the whole picture is concentrated mainly in the symmetrical, unified and continuous movement of the crescent moon, stars and the sky itself. The overwhelming inner feelings are surprisingly balanced by the trees depicted in the foreground, which, in turn, balance the entire panorama.
Stylistics of the painting
It is worth paying utmost attention to the amazingly synchronized movement of the celestial bodies in the night sky. Vincent Van Gogh specifically depicted the stars significantly enlarged to convey the flickering light of the entire halo. The light from the moon also appears pulsating, and the spiral curls very harmoniously convey the stylized image of the galaxy.
All the riot of the night sky is balanced, thanks to the image depicted in dark color the city landscape and the cypress trees that frame the picture from below. Night city and trees effectively complement the panorama of the night sky, giving it a feeling of heaviness and gravity. Special significance has a village depicted in the lower right corner of the picture. It appears serenely calm in relation to the dynamic sky.
The color scheme of the painting “Starry Night” by Van Gogh is also important. Lighter shades blend harmoniously with the dark foreground. And the special technique of drawing with strokes of different lengths and directions makes this picture more expressive compared to the previous works of this artist.
Discussions about the painting “Starry Night” and the work of Van Gogh
Like many masterpieces, Van Gogh's Starry Night almost immediately became fertile ground for all sorts of interpretations and discussions. Astronomers began counting the stars depicted in the painting, trying to determine which constellation they belonged to. Geographers have tried to no avail to find out what kind of city is depicted at the bottom of the work. However, the fruits of the research of neither one nor the other were successful.
What is known for certain is that, while painting “The Starry Night,” Vincent deviated from his usual manner of painting from life.
Another interesting fact is that the creation of this picture, according to scientists and researchers, was influenced by the ancient legend about Joseph from the Old Testament. Although the artist was not considered a fan of theological teachings, the theme of eleven stars eloquently appears in the painting “Starry Night” by Van Gogh.
Many years have passed since the great artist created this painting, and a programmer from Greece has created an interactive version of this painting masterpiece. Thanks to special technology, you can control the flow of paint by touching your fingers. The spectacle is amazing!
Vincent Van Gogh. Painting "Starry Night". Does it have a hidden meaning?
Books and songs are written about this picture, it is also in electronic publications. And, perhaps, it is difficult to find a more expressive artist than Vincent Van Gogh. The painting “Starry Night” is the clearest proof of this. fine art still inspires poets, musicians and other artists to create unique works.
Still not found consensus about this picture. Did the illness affect her writing, is there any hidden meaning in this work, the current generation can only guess about it. It is possible that this is just a picture that the artist’s fevered mind saw. However, this is a completely different world, accessible only to the eyes of Vincent van Gogh.
Vincent Van Gogh - Dutch artist- post-impressionist who rendered colossal influence for art. His works are worth tens of millions of dollars, and there are admirers of the painter’s work all over the world. But all this happened after the artist’s death. Van Gogh lived a difficult and short life, only 37 years old. He was in constant search of himself as an artist, struggled with a serious illness, often did not have enough money for food, and spent all his money on paints, brushes and canvases. Nevertheless, Vincent, who was intensively creative for the last seven years of his life, left a huge legacy - more than two thousand paintings and graphic works. One of the most famous paintings Van Gogh - "Starry Night". This masterpiece was very significant for the artist himself.
Background. Quarrel with Gauguin. The painting was preceded by important events in the life of Van Gogh. Everyone knows the story of the cut off ear after a quarrel with the artist Paul Gauguin. Vincent lived in Arles in 1888, where he dreamed of creating an artists' residence in the yellow house he rented. He invited Gauguin, and the artist agreed to come. Van Gogh was happy like a child, he admired the talent of Paul Gauguin, and especially for his arrival he painted paintings with sunflowers (he wanted to decorate his friend’s room with them).
During his visit to Arles, Paul Gauguin painted a portrait of Van Gogh at work
For some time, Gauguin and Van Gogh worked fruitfully together, but increasingly creative differences arose between them. Paul Gauguin believed that an artist should use more imagination when creating his works, while Vincent was a supporter of working with nature. Gauguin wrote: “I feel like a complete stranger in Arles. Vincent and I rarely agree, especially when it comes to painting. He hates Ingres, Raphael and Degas, whom I admire. To end the argument, I tell him: “You’re right, General.” He really likes my paintings, but when I work on them, he constantly points out one flaw or another to me. He’s a romantic, but I have primitive tastes.”
Van Gogh painted “Self-Portrait with a Cut-Off Ear and a Pipe” after a quarrel with Gauguin.
In total, Gauguin spent two months in Arles. During quarrels, he often threatened Van Gogh with his departure. And on December 23, 1888, he decided to leave the yellow house and spend the night in a hotel. Vincent thought that the artist had left. The next morning, all of Arles was seething with the news that that night Van Gogh had suffered a fit of insanity. The artist cut off the earlobe, wrapped it in a scarf and took it to a brothel to give it to a prostitute. Returning home, Van Gogh lost consciousness. In this condition, the police found him, who were called by the inhabitants of the brothel. Vincent was admitted to the city hospital, and Gauguin left without saying goodbye. More artists never met.
Work on " Starry night». After the story with Gauguin, Van Gogh was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy. Vincent agreed to stay in a monastery mental hospital in Saint-Rémy.
Unlike other patients, Van Gogh was not assigned to the clinic. After daily work, he could leave the monastery walls and return to his cell. He was under such supervision as was considered necessary, and was as independent as possible; and Van Gogh believed that the treatment would help him. The low wall that surrounded the monastery remained for many weeks in his imagination as a boundary that he could not cross. Striving for recovery, the voluntary patient remained within limits that were not obligatory for him. He wanted to find safety and protection. Gradually he began to become interested in the surrounding landscape, fascinated by the cypress trees, olive groves and sparse vegetation on the hills. The motifs surrounding the artist already possessed that strange originality, that dark, demonic side to which his art was increasingly striving.
While staying at the monastery, Van Gogh painted the painting “Starry Night” in June 1889, imagining this plot. Perhaps the influence of Gauguin was felt here, who believed that you need to work more with the imagination than with nature. The artist looks with an imaginary high point down to the village. To the left of it a cypress tree rushes into the sky, to the right there is a crowd of olive groves shaped like a cloud, and waves of mountains run towards the horizon. The manner in which Vincent interprets these newly found motifs evokes fire, fog and the sea, and the elemental power of nature connects with the immaterial cosmic drama of the stars. The eternal spontaneity of the Universe simultaneously idyllically rocks the human home in the cradle and threatens it. The village itself could be anywhere: it could be Saint-Rémy or Nuenen at night. The spire of the church seems to reach out to the elements, being both an antenna and a beacon, it resembles the Eiffel Tower (whose passion was always reflected in Van Gogh’s night landscapes). Together with firmament the details of the landscape celebrate the miracle of creation.
Another night landscape Van Gogh – “Cafe Terrace at Night”
“I painted a landscape with olive trees and a new study of a starry sky,” Van Gogh wrote about this painting to his brother Theo, “and although I did not see latest paintings Gauguin and Bernard, I am deeply convinced that the two studies mentioned were written in the same spirit. When these two studies have been before your eyes for some time, you will get from them a much more complete idea of the things that we discussed with Gauguin and Bernard, and which occupy us, than from my letters. This is not a return to romanticism or religious ideas, no. It is through Delacroix’s way, that is, with the help of color and design, more arbitrary than illusory precision, that rural nature can be expressed sooner than it seems.”
Features of the picture. Starry Night was not Van Gogh's first attempt to depict the night sky. A year earlier, in Arles, the artist painted “Starry Night over the Rhone.” Night scenes attracted the master; he often worked in the dark, attaching candles to his hat, as the old masters did.
Now the painting “Starry Night over the Rhone” is kept in Paris
Van Gogh wrote to Theo that he often thinks about the stars: “Whenever I see stars, I begin to dream - just as involuntarily as I dream when looking at the black dots that geographical map cities are indicated. Why, I ask myself, should the bright points on the sky be less accessible to us than the black points on the map of France? Just as we are carried by a train when we go to Rouen or Tarascon, death carries us to the stars. However, in this reasoning, only one thing is indisputable: while we live, we cannot go to a star, just as, having died, we cannot board a train. It is likely that cholera, syphilis, consumption, cancer are nothing more than heavenly means of transportation, playing the same role as steamships, omnibuses and trains on earth. And natural death from old age is equivalent to walking.” While working on “Starry Night,” the artist wrote that he still needs religion, which is why he paints stars.
There are many interpretations of the painting “Starry Night”. Some even note that it accurately depicts the positions of the stars in the June night sky of 1889. And this is quite likely. But the twisting, spiraling lines have nothing to do with the northern lights, the Milky Way, some spiral nebula or anything like that. According to other interpretations, Van Gogh painted his own Garden of Gethsemane. As proof of this assumption, a discussion about Christ in the Garden of Gephismanes is cited, which Van Gogh at that time was conducting in correspondence with the artists Gauguin and Bernard. This is also possible. It is also possible that this picture also reflects the forebodings and mental suffering of the painter himself. But biblical allegories run through all of Van Gogh’s works, and he did not need a special plot for this. Rather, it was a desire for synthesis in which scientific, philosophical and personal ideas were compared. “Starry Night” is an attempt to convey a state of shock, shock, and cypress trees, olives and mountains served only as a catalyst. Then Van Gogh was more interested than ever in the material essence of his subjects, as well as their symbolic meaning.
It is noteworthy that many scientists reflect natural phenomena in Van Gogh’s paintings. Komsomolskaya Pravda collected facts about how the works of the Dutch artist help researchers in its material.
The original of the painting “Starry Night” (oil on canvas 73.7 x 92.1) is kept in New York at the Museum of Modern Art. The work was transferred there in 1941 from a private collection.
USEFUL
In which Russian museums there are masterpieces by Van Gogh
Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh can be seen in Moscow and St. Petersburg. So, in the Museum of Fine Arts. A. S. Pushkin’s “Red Vineyards in Arles”, “The Sea in Sainte-Marie”, “Portrait of Dr. Felix Rey”, “Prisoners’ Walk” and “Landscape at Auvers after the Rain” are kept. And in the Hermitage there are four works by the famous Dutchman: “Memory of the Garden in Etten (Ladies of Arles)”, “Arles Arena”, “Bush”, “Huts”.
The painting “Red Vineyards” is one of the few works by Van Gogh that was purchased during the artist’s lifetime
The material uses data from the book “Van Gogh. Complete collection works" by Ingo F. Walter and Rainer Metzger.
Vincent Van Gogh. Starry night. 1889 Museum of Modern Art, New York
Starry night. This is not just one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings. This is one of the most notable paintings in all Western painting. What is so unusual about it?
Why, once you see it, don’t you 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 unsuccessful 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” was written in a mental hospital
The painting was painted during a difficult period in Van Gogh's life. Six months earlier, living together 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 left. He could no longer stay close to his unstable friend. Every day there are quarrels. And one day Van Gogh cut off his earlobe. And he handed it to a prostitute who preferred Gauguin.
Exactly what they did with a defeated bull at a bullfight. The cut off ear of the animal was given to the winning matador.
Vincent Van Gogh. Self-portrait with a cut off ear and a pipe. January 1889 Zurich Kunsthaus Museum, Private collection Niarchos. Wikipedia.org Van Gogh could not stand the loneliness and the collapse of his hopes for the workshop. His brother placed him in a shelter for the mentally ill in Saint-Rémy. This is where “Starry Night” was written.
All his mental strength was strained to the limit. That's why the picture turned out to be so expressive. Fascinating. Like a bundle 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 life. This was the issue over which they most often argued with Gauguin. He believed that you need to use your imagination. Van Gogh had a different opinion.
But in Saint-Rémy he had no choice. The sick were not allowed to go outside. It was forbidden to even work in one’s own room. Brother Theo agreed with the hospital authorities that the artist would be given a separate room for his workshop.
So it’s in vain that researchers try 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 the cloudless sky we see vortex flows.
Researchers are confident that Van Gogh depicted the phenomenon of turbulence. Which can hardly be seen with the naked eye.
The consciousness, aggravated by mental illness, was like a bare wire. To such an extent that Van Gogh saw what an ordinary mortal could not.
Vincent Van Gogh. Starry night. Fragment. 1889 Museum of Modern Art, New York 400 years earlier, another person realized this phenomenon. A person with a very subtle perception of the world around him. . He created a series of drawings with vortex flows 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 painting was painted in a manner characteristic of Van Gogh. Thick long strokes. Which are neatly placed next to each other. Juicy blue and yellow colors make it very pleasing to the eye.
However, Van Gogh himself considered his work unsuccessful. When the painting came to the exhibition, he casually commented about it: “Maybe it will show others how to depict night effects better than I did.”
This attitude towards the picture is not surprising. After all, it was not written from life. 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.
This is such a paradox. His “unsuccessful” painting became an “icon” for the Expressionists. For whom imagination was much more important 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 wrote “Starry Night over the Rhone.”
Vincent Van Gogh. Starry night over the Rhone. 1888 Musée d'Orsay, Paris The Starry Night, which is in New York, is fantastic. Space landscape darkens the earth. We don’t even immediately see the town at the bottom of the picture.
From the paintings of Vincent van Gogh it is quite easy to trace the artist’s medical history: from gray subjects tending towards realism to bright, floating motifs, where both hallucination and oriental images that were fashionable at that time were mixed.
"Starry Night" is one of Van Gogh's most recognizable paintings. Night is the time of the artist. When he got drunk, he became rowdy and lost himself in revelry. But he could also go melancholy to the open air. “I still need religion. That’s why I left the house at night and started drawing stars,” Vincent wrote to his brother Theo. What did Van Gogh see in the night sky?
Plot
Night enveloped the imaginary city. In the foreground are cypress trees. These trees, with their gloomy dark green foliage, symbolized sadness and death in the ancient tradition. (It is no coincidence that cypress trees are often planted in cemeteries.) In the Christian tradition, cypress is a symbol eternal life. (This tree grew in the Garden of Eden and, presumably, Noah's Ark was built from it.) In Van Gogh, the cypress plays both roles: the sadness of the artist, who will soon commit suicide, and the eternity of the universe running.
To show movement, to give dynamics to the frozen night, Van Gogh came up with special equipment- drawing the moon, stars, sky, he put strokes in a circle. This, combined with color transitions, creates the impression that the light is spilling.
Context
Vincent painted the painting in 1889 at the Saint-Paul Mental Hospital in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It was a period of remission, so Van Gogh asked to go to his workshop in Arles. But city residents signed a petition demanding that the artist be expelled from the city. “Dear Mayor,” the document says, “we, the undersigned, would like to draw your attention to the fact that this Dutch artist (Vincent Van Gogh) has lost his mind and drinks too much. And when he gets drunk, he molests women and children.” Van Gogh will never return to Arles.
Painting en plein air at night fascinated the artist. The depiction of color was of paramount importance to Vincent: even in letters to his brother Theo, he often described objects using different colors. Less than a year before Starry Night, he wrote Starry Night over the Rhone, in which he experimented with the rendering of the colors of the night sky and artificial lighting, which was a novelty at that time.
The fate of the artist
Van Gogh lived 37 turbulent and tragic years. Growing up as a disliked child, who was perceived as a son who was born instead of his older brother, who died a year before the boy was born, the severity of his father-pastor, poverty - all this affected Van Gogh’s psyche.
Not knowing what to devote himself to, Vincent could not finish his studies anywhere: either he quit, or he was kicked out for his violent antics and sloppy appearance. Painting was an escape from the depression Van Gogh faced after his failures with women and his failed careers as a dealer and missionary.
Van Gogh also refused to study to become an artist, believing that he could master everything on his own. However, it was not so easy - Vincent never learned to draw a person. His paintings attracted attention, but were not in demand.
Prisoners' Walk, 1890
Disappointed and saddened, Vincent left for Arles with the intention of creating the “Workshop of the South” - a kind of brotherhood of like-minded artists working for future generations. It was then that Van Gogh's style took shape, which is known today and was described by the artist himself as follows: “Instead of trying to accurately depict what is in front of my eyes, I use color more arbitrarily, so as to express myself more fully.”
In Arles, the artist lived a voracious life in every sense. He wrote a lot and drank a lot. Drunk brawls were scary local residents, who eventually even asked to expel the artist from the city.
In Arles, the famous incident with Gauguin also occurred, when, after another quarrel, Van Gogh attacked his friend with a razor in his hands, and then, either as a sign of repentance, or in another attack, cut off his earlobe. All the circumstances are still unknown. However, the day after this incident, Vincent was taken to a hospital, and Gauguin left. They never met again.
During the last 2.5 months of his torn life, Van Gogh painted 80 paintings. And the doctor completely believed that everything was fine with Vincent. But one evening he locked himself in his room and did not come out for a long time. Neighbors, who suspected something was wrong, opened the door and found Van Gogh with a bullet through his chest. They failed to help him - the 37-year-old artist died.
"The Starry Night" by Vincent Van Gogh is one of the most... famous works fine arts. But what is the meaning of this masterpiece of painting?
Most people can tell you that Vincent Van Gogh was famous impressionist, who painted "Starry Night". Many people have heard that Van Gogh was “crazy” and suffered from mental illness throughout his life. The story of Van Gogh cutting off his ear after a fight with his friend French artist Paul Gauguin, is one of the most popular in the history of art. After which he was placed in a psychiatric hospital in the city of Saint-Rémy, where the painting “Starry Night” was painted. Did Van Gogh's health affect the meaning and imagery of the painting?
Religious interpretation
In 1888, Van Gogh wrote a personal letter to his brother Theo: “I still need religion. That’s why I left the house at night and started drawing stars.” As you know, Van Gogh was religious, even serving as a priest in his youth. Many scientists believe that the painting contains religious meaning. Why are there exactly 11 stars in the film “Starry Night”?
“Behold, I saw another dream: behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars worshiped.”[Genesis 37:9]
Perhaps by painting exactly 11 stars, Vincent van Gogh is referring to Genesis 37:9, which tells of the dreamy Joseph who was cast out by his 11 brothers. It is not difficult to understand why Van Gogh could compare himself to Joseph. Joseph was sold into slavery and deprived of his freedom, as was Van Gogh, who made Arles his refuge in recent years life. No matter what Joseph did, he could not earn the respect of his 11 older brothers. In the same way, Van Gogh, as an artist, failed to gain the favor of society, the critics of his time.
Van Gogh - cypress?
Cypress, like daffodils, appears in many of Van Gogh's paintings. It would not be surprising if Van Gogh, during the depressive period when The Starry Night was painted, associated himself with the frightening, almost supernatural cypress tree in the foreground of the painting. This cypress is ambiguous, it is opposed to such bright stars in the sky. Perhaps this is Van Gogh himself - strange and repulsive, he reaches out to the stars, to the recognition of society.
Starry Night (Turbulence SPF Darina), 1889, Museum of Modern Art, New York
“Looking at the stars, I always start to dream. I ask myself: why should the bright points on the sky be less accessible to us than the black points on the map of France?” - wrote Van Gogh. “And just as a train takes us to Tarascon or Rouen, so death will take us to one of the stars.” The artist told his dream to the canvas, and now the viewer is surprised and dreams, looking at the stars painted by Van Gogh.