Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night - Assignment Example

Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night Vincent van Gogh 2. 1853-1890 3. Post-impressionism 4. The Starry Night 5. At the asylum 6. Background information about the artist 7. References Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night 1. Vincent van Gogh The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh is one of the best known post-impressionists of his time, although his art was not widely appreciated during his life. As a boy he was silent and serious. His youth was, by his own admission, "gloomy and cold and barren" [1]. After holding jobs as a book seller, art dealer and supply teacher, he turned fervently to religion but failed to make a career in this field. During all this time he recorded the scenes and people around him in drawings. From 1880, and following his younger brother Theo's advice, he decided to dedicate himself to art. Initially he used very dark and sombre earth colors (especially brown) in his paintings, but his discovery of impressionism in Paris, where he frequented the circle of Toulouse Lautrec, Degas and Gauguin [2], fuelled the development of his unique style. 2. Time period Vincent van Gogh lived in the period 1853-1890 and died after shooting himself in the chest at the young age of 37. In spite of the fact that he was a late starter (as aforementioned, he commenced his career as an artist at the age of 27), he was highly prolific and produced more than 2000 paintings in the last 10 years of his life. 3. Post-impressionism The style of Vincent van Gogh is very unique but it can be best described as post-impressionist [3]. This style was initiated as an extension of impressionism but, at the same time, a rebellion against its limitations. The use of vibrant colors, thick brushstrokes and real-life subjects were features shared with impressionism. Conversely, the emphasis of geometric forms, the distortion of reality to create an emotional effect and the unnatural use of color were novel and innovative features that allowed the subsequent development of this style into expressionism, of which van Gogh was a pioneer [4, 5]. 4. The Starry Night "Looking at the stars always makes me dream . Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France ...., we take death to reach a star" [5]. It was perhaps this kind of thought that urged van Gogh to paint "the Starry Night" (Saint Rmy, June 1889), one of his most iconic paintings. It is oil on canvas and it is currently housed (since 1941 it is part of the permanent collection) in the Museum of Modern Art of New York (New York, USA) [5]. The tree in the painting is a cypress, a species generally associated with cemeteries and mourning. It is in the shape of a flame and helps connect heaven, represented by a lively, striking and vibrant sky, with earth, represented by the little village at the bottom of the painting. At the same time, the village identifies order, while the stars in the sky are a explosion of colour and energy. Although some critics maintain that the village depicted in the painting is not real, others believe it represents views of Saint Rmy (Provence, France) from the neighbourhood of the asylum Van Gogh was confined to at the time the painting was made. This period is often referred to as "the Saint Rmy period". It is characterised by the use of thick, sweeping brushstrokes to create a sea of swirls and spirals, which revealed the mental turmoil he was suffering. The mental hospital was housed in a former monastery a mile and a half out of town, in a area of cornfields, olive trees and vineyards. His time at the hospital gave him the opportunity to reflect about his childhood and the values and beliefs from this time of his life. The church spire is an addition that is believed to be a reference to his childhood and his native land, the Netherlands [6]. The painting favours feeling, emotion and energy and puts aside the impressionist doctrine of truth to nature. However, Van Gogh was never very happy with the painting as he considered it a study, not a finished piece. As he confesses in a letter to Theo: "The first four canvases are studies[] 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" [7]. 5. At the asylum In the autumn of 1888, van Gogh was staying in Arles with his friend Gauguin. Although they initially painted together, their friendship deteriorated rapidly due to their constant quarrels about art and it finally ended after van Gogh attacked Gauguin with a razor. This episode was followed by a period of hallucinations and paranoia that resulted in his admission in the mental hospital of Saint Rmy. During his time there, the garden and the surrounding landscape became the subjects of his work. It is in this manner that, following a severe crisis and subsequent deterioration in health that lasted several weeks, he produced a new study of his drawing Starry Night Over the Rhone, now titled The Starry Night, which he later sent to his brother Theo in Paris. 6. Background information about the artist One of the best documented facts about Vincent van Gogh was that he was constantly afflicted by mental problems, particularly in the last few years of his life. This affected his painting to the point that in occasions he was not allowed to do it. A number of disorders have been suggested but there is no unanimity among experts so as to what he suffered from: schizophrenia, syphilis, bipolar disorder, etc. [8]. His lifestyle did not help his health as he also suffered from malnutrition, exhaustion due to overwork, insomnia and alcohol abuse. In fact, he was very fond of absinthe, also known as "the green fairy", a drink very popular among the artists and intellectuals of the time and believed to be highly addictive. Interestingly, several medical theories have been elaborated in an attempt to explain van Gogh's excessive use of yellow. One theory linked it with absinthe consumption. It has been proved that high doses of one of its components (thujone, a neurotoxin) trigger a disorder called xanthopsia, which causes the sufferer to develop yellow vision. Another theory suggests that van Gogh may have been administered digitalis as a treatment for epilepsia, causing the viewer to see yellow spots surrounded by coronas, as the stars shown in the painting. A third theory suggests that, as the paintings were lead-based, this may have provoked swelling of the retinas and, as a consequence, a halo effect in the vision. 7. References [1] Van Gogh's Letters. 2007. Web exhibits. 1 Feb. 2007. [2] Historic figures. Bbc.co.uk. 1 Feb. 2007. [3] Post-impressionism. 19 Jan. 2007. Wikipedia. 31 Jan. 2007. [4] Expressionism. 1 Feb. 2007. Wikipedia. 1 Feb. 2007. [5] The Collection. MoMA.org, The Museum of Modern Art. 31 Jan. 2007. [6] Vincent. 26 Sept. 2006. Art History in Stamps. 31 Jan. 2007 [7] Van Gogh's Letters. 2007. Web exhibits. 1 Feb. 2007. [8] Vincent van Gogh. 31 Jan. 2007. Wikipedia. 1 Feb. 2007. Read More