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Today we will be writing a free copy of Vincent Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night". This is one of the most famous and recognizable paintings ever created. Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" is a symbol of the power of human imagination, one of the most amazing and incredible landscapes you can imagine.
While working on the painting, we will try to get at least a little closer to the author’s technique, to convey the inherent dynamism, rhythm and impasto of the brushstroke inherent in this work. Let's try to guess the mood and energy of the picture.
How did Vincent Van Gogh paint his painting?
It is possible that one night, Vincent Van Gogh left his house, armed with a canvas, brushes and paints, with the completely convincing intention of painting the most incredible landscape, with the most incredible stars, moon, light, sky, wind...
Let's take a close look at the painting by Vincent Van Gogh, admire it, try to catch all the details and start writing our “Starry Night”.
Vincent van Gogh writes "Starry Night"
The process of painting this painting and the result of the work will make you fall in love with this painting and the author’s work.
Artists all over the world constantly copy Van Gogh's "Starry Night, Saint-Rémy". This is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world of fine art, and various reproductions of this canvas adorn the interiors of many homes. The circumstances of the creation of "Starry Night", where and how it was painted, as well as the artist's previous unfulfilled dreams, make this work especially significant for Van Gogh's work.
Vincent Van Gogh "Starry Night, Saint-Rémy". 1889
When Van Gogh was a little younger, he planned to become a pastor and missionary, he wanted to help poor people with the word of God. Religious education helped him in some way to create The Starry Night. In 1889, when the night sky with sparkling stars was painted moonlight stars, the artist wasin the French hospital of Saint-Rémy.
Count the stars - there are eleven of them.We can say that the creation of the painting was influenced by the ancient legend about Joseph from the Old Testament. “Behold, I also saw a dream: behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars worship me,” we read in the Book of Genesis.
Van Gogh wrote: “I still have a passionate need for religion. That’s why I left the house at night and began to draw the night sky with stars.”
This famous painting by 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 entire world around him.The Starry Night painting is the most outstanding work of art of the mid-19th century.
There are many reasons why "Starry Night" attracts people so much, and it's not just the saturation of blue and yellow flowers. Many details in the picture and, first of all, the stars are deliberately enlarged. It's like the artist's vision come to life: he surrounds each of the stars with a ball, and we see 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, crossing 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 the fact 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 moon and stars of a “shining”, 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 moon and the stars move in a single wave-like rhythm. The trees depicted in this picture significantly balance the overall composition.
The vortex in the sky reminds us of the Milky Way, galaxies, and cosmic harmony, expressed in the simultaneously ecstatic and blissfully calm movement of all bodies in dark blue space. In the picture there are eleven incredibly huge stars and a large but waning month, reminiscent of biblical story about Christ and the 12 apostles.
In vain, geographers try to determine what kind of settlement is depicted at the bottom of the canvas, and astronomers try to find the constellations in the picture. The image of the night sky was copied from my own consciousness. If usually the night sky is serene and cold and 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 more amazing nature than the one we see in the real world.
When Night falls on the Earth like darkness -
Love lights up the stars in the sky...
Maybe someone doesn't notice them,
Oh, someone is watching them through a telescope -
There he searches for life, studies science...
And someone just looks - and Dreams!
Sometimes a dream can be fabulous,
But still, he continues to believe...
His star is alive, it shines,
All his questions are answered...
There, among thousands of stars, there is Vincent's Star!
It never fades away!
She burns throughout the entire Universe -
She lights up the planets!
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
"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 contrasted with 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 contemporary 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.
Vincent Van Gogh. Starry night. 1889 Museum of Modern Art, New York
Starry night. This is not just one of the most famous paintings Van Gogh. 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 the 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.
The painting “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh is considered by many to be the pinnacle of expressionism. It is curious that the artist himself considered it extremely unsuccessful job, and it was written at the moment of the master’s mental discord. What is so unusual about this painting? Let’s try to figure it out later in the review.
1. Van Gogh wrote “Starry Night” in a mental hospital
The moment of creating the painting was preceded by a difficult emotional period in the artist’s life. A few months earlier, his friend Paul Gauguin came to Van Gogh in Arles to exchange paintings and experiences. But a fruitful creative tandem did not work out, and after a couple of months the artists finally fell out. 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. This was done with a bull defeated in a bullfight. The matador received the cut off ear of the animal.
Gauguin left soon after, and Van Gogh's brother Theo, seeing his condition, sent the unfortunate man to a hospital for the mentally ill in Saint-Rémy. 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 would be allocated for his brother, where he could create, but the mentally ill would not be allowed outside.
3. Turbulence in the sky
Either a heightened perception of the world, or the discovery of a sixth sense, 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 a similar phenomenon was depicted by another genius artist Leonardo da Vinci.
4. The artist considered his painting extremely unsuccessful
Vincent Van Gogh believed that his “Starry Night” was not the best painting, because it was not painted from life, which was very important to him. When the painting came to the exhibition, the artist said about it rather dismissively: “Maybe she will show others how to do night effects better than I did.”. However, for the expressionists, who believed that the most important thing was the manifestation of feelings, “Starry Night” became almost an icon.
5. Van Gogh created another “Starry Night”
There was another “Starry Night” in Van Gogh’s collection. The stunning landscape cannot leave anyone indifferent. The artist himself wrote to his brother Theo after creating this painting: "Why bright stars in the sky cannot 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 reach the stars.".
Today the works of this artist cost fabulous money, but