Comparison And Contrast: The Potato Eaters And The Starry Night - Essay Example

Comparison And Contrast: The Potato Eaters And The Starry Night I have picked out Vincent Van Gogh’s two stupefying paintings for comparison, The Potato Eaters and The Starry Night. These two paintings are considered to be the masterpieces of Van Gogh. The notable contrasting feature of the two paintings is that The Potato Eaters looks natural whereas The Starry Night seems chimerical. The Potato Eaters portrays five people, four females and one male, sitting around a table eating potatoes. One of the women is busy pouring a drink into some cups. The high point of the painting is the rendered illumination. The artist, for the most part, has used dim colors in the painting to bring out the effect of a dark room. Subtle usage of bright colors leads to the lovely illumination of the room. Coming to the people in the painting, all of them look cadaverous and it seems like they are inching to have a meal. The pillar behind the women with the coffee mug appears to support the whole building. The picture actually depicts the life of the peasants who work hard to earn their meal. Van Gogh wants to portray that the hands used to take the potatoes from the plate are the ones that are used to dig it from the ground. The Starry Night shows a night sky accompanied by whirling clouds and gleaming stars. There is a small town in the bottom of the picture and a huge dark structure to the left. The huge dark structure looks like thick black smoke emanating from some part of the town. Some may call it to be a tree. Only this section of the painting looks heavily dark. Rest of the painting looks extremely bright, thanks to the sparkling stars. The whirling cloud resembles the photograph of a star taken by the Hubble spacecraft a few years ago. The brush strokes used in The Potato Eaters are not visible even in the shaded portions of the wall whereas the brush strokes are clearly visible in The Starry Night. The Starry Night has the nature providing light whereas in The Potato Eaters it’s an old oil lamp that lights the room. Though the light from the lamp is dim, it makes the room more attractive than the starry sky lit town. The lamplight gives life to the picture. The Starry Night makes the viewer’s eyes follow the curves in the sky. The eleven stars in the sky give a religious touch to the painting. The colorful sky catches the viewer’s attention. Indeed it gives a rich look to the town. On the other hand, The Potato Eaters is not so eye catchy. This is because the people in the painting look ugly and wasted. Their faces look dirty just like a potato dug from the earth. Van Gogh did this purposefully because he wanted to show the miseries of the peasant life. Their ugly and dirty faces indirectly depicted their wretched living. In The Starry Night the dark cool colors used in the buildings impart a peaceful look to the town. The jots of yellow in the windows make them look fiery. The church’s tall steeple is colored in such a way that it doesn’t get lost in the background of the mountains. The shades of green in the skies feel good. The emblazoning of the clouds attracts the viewer. In The Potato Eaters bright colors have been seldom used. This may be due to the fact that the room is lit by a small oil lamp. Only the oil lamp flame appears bright in the whole painting. Talking about the illumination, the tinges of light given to the pillar and walls look perfect. The table looks well-lit and the shadow on the face of the woman feasting on the potatoes is too good. The skin color of the figures resembles the color of potatoes. The room is toned wonderfully to show the windows, picture frame and the clock. Both the paintings have been done with oil on canvas. The faces of the people in The Potato Eaters convey mixed emotions. The man appears to be in great sorrow and the woman sitting next seems to be consoling him. The lady with the cup of drink in her hand looks a tad happy while the other lady appears to be dull. The face of the young girl is hidden so it’s difficult to discover her emotions. In The Starry Night the sky with a tornado-like cloud steals the show. It is saddening to note that the massive dark structure on the left botches up the whole painting. The town is given little importance and is devoid of any activity. The curving lines outlining the mountain create a depth in the painting. The trees on the foothills of the mountain look beautiful with a good blend of light and dark green. Both the paintings have some hint of weirdness in them. The Starry Night has mountains painted in blue! God knows what went through Van Gogh’s mind when he was painting the mountains. Also the crescent-shaped moon looks orange in color. Never in the history of mankind had anyone seen the moon in such a costume! Coming to The Potato Eaters it’s ludicrous to have two of the persons wearing a cap while having their meal! Another noticeable thing is that the girl with her back to the picture is wearing a lovely expensive dress, when she is considered to be belonging to a poor peasant family. The Starry Night has a Japanese influence in it. This is due to the fact that Van Gogh was mesmerized by the Japanese engravings and stamps. There are no human figures in the painting, which depicts the silence at night, and the brief parallel outlines that compile the image of the town indicate placidity. The Potato Eaters of Van Gogh doesn’t typify any social event .It only presents the simple and poor life of peasants. The coarse stroke and the selection of dark and earthy colors look perfect for the painting. I personally loved The Potato Eaters because of its stupendous illumination and portrayal of a miserable peasant family. The painting is so vivid that one can almost hear the people conversing. Considering the fact that this was his first attempt at a large-size painting without even mastering many techniques, this painting can be deemed to be a real masterpiece. Though it may look simple from the outside, Van Gogh has put a lot of work into it. The Starry Night is eye catchy and highly imaginative but it didn’t move my heart the way The Potato Eaters did. The Starry Night is heralded as his magnum opus but still I felt The Potato Eaters to be the superior of the two because of the subject of the painting. If I had money to buy any one of the paintings then I would surely go for The Potato Eaters. Works Cited The Potato Eaters. 18 Feb. 2008. Wikipedia- the free encyclopedia. 22 Feb 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Potato_Eaters The Potato Eaters. 2005. Van Gogh museum. 22 Feb. 2008. http://www3.vangoghmuseum.nl/vgm/index.jsp?page=1303&collection=1294&lang=en The Starry Night. 18 Feb. 2008. Wikipedia- the free encyclopedia. 22 Feb 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night Van Gogh’s grapple with death: Potato Eaters. 2008. Potato Eaters. 22 Feb. 2008 http://blogs.princeton.edu/writingart4/archives/2005/01/potato_eaters.html Van Gogh’s grapple with death: Starry Night. 2008. Starry Night. 22 Feb. 2008 http://blogs.princeton.edu/writingart4/archives/2005/01/starry_night.html Vincent van Gogh: The Potato Eaters. 2008. Van Gogh Gallery. 22 Feb. 2008. http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/potatoindex.html Read More