Starry Night over the Rhone by Vincent Van Gogh - Essay Example

Introduction

Vincent Van Gogh is among the most famous, highly priced and finest artists of his own accord and has offered greater insights to newer artists in the art industry. He is probably most recognized for his “Starry Night” painting. The paint was done in September 1888. Van Gogh had created approximately 200 artworks (Van, 2014). While growing up, he was considered or rather perceived to be highly emotional and having extremely low self-esteem. It is perceived that while in those depressed emotions, it fostered him to pursue the path of expressionism in most of his artwork. As time progressed, he got more mature with his artwork. This is more evident in his color patterns and brush strokes to evolve to another kind of art that came to be known as impressionism. This paper seeks to critically analyze Van Gogh’s, “Starry Night” painting.

The Starry Night painting by Van Gogh is set on the banks of Rhone River which passes close to the place Lamartine. This is the place where Van Gogh had rented an apartment. Before making the painting, Vincent had sent a sketch of the painting to a friend called Eugene Boch. The paint was first exhibited in Paris in 1889 at the annual exhibition.

Description of the painting

Starry Night over the Rhone painting is considered to have given Vincent the perspective that he embraced in his subsequent starry night paintings. This particular painting is much unique and different from other starry night paintings in the sense that it has human beings as opposed to other paintings. The paintings portray a starry night over a section of Rhone River at night. The painting captures the gas lighting in Arles at the late hours of the night (Boime, 1995). The illuminated sky is also captured in the paintings. Furthermore, the artist successfully managed to do the gas lightening reflections which appears to have been excellently captured against the background. The background is made of the glimmering blue waters of Rhone River. At the foreground it can be seen that there are two persons, most likely they are couples based in the manner which they have held themselves, and are taking a stroll along the river banks. It can also be seen that there are stars in the sky and are surrounded by an orb of their natural light. Moreover, the painting captures far away structures that appear dimly lit by the artificial light.

Features that are significant from the painting

Getting to understand the importance of the painting is integral in understanding why the paint is still popular and of significance today. The painting was produced at a time when Van Gogh felt he needed religious guidance. This painting is often categorized alongside a collection of Vincent’s Starry Night paintings, but it can be easily distinguished from the rest because of the individuals in the foreground which is considered to be the cornerstone of the art as it pioneered his approach to other Starry Night Paintings (Van, 2014). Some of the significant features include evened visual weight, present forms, and presence of humans.

Presence of humans

There is the inclusion of human forms in the foreground of this painting. The presence of humans has signified a lot. First, they add a touch of natural quality to the painting. Furthermore, they also make the painting to have a natural environment setting that is fascinating and pleasurable to look at.

Evened visual weight

Looking at the art at a closer range shows that Vincent gave equal visual weight to all the components in the painting. There is no exploitation of variations in elements such as color intensity, dynamic movement, and texture. There is no visual distinction between the sky and the earth. The light from the stars is for instance reflected together with that of the city lights on the Rhone River.

Present forms

The artist drew the actual painting on a canvas material. But at the moment there has been hand painted reproduction that has been done by various artists are now available. Starry Night over the Rhone painting has been reproduced in different computerized printouts and has been globally sold.

Analysis of the elements

Van Gogh uses a simple color mixture of warm colors that have different shades of yellow as well as cool colors that have various shades of blue. The integration of these colors and technique makes the viewer understand the mood and time of the day portrayed in the painting. Focusing on the canvas, the sky portrays a representation of darkness that is mixed with bright stars denoting that it is at night. Looking at the lower side of the canvas and focus to the river, it can be deduced that the color pattern is dark with light to show the reflection of the sky and the houses. There is also minimum water movement that depicts the night of being calm and cool. The artist has successfully managed to integrate different elements of art to have a coherent and excellent piece of art. The author has used different colors which are not only warm but also colorful to bring and increase life to the piece of art. The intensity of the colors used varies to show the distinction between the elements in the art. The color is well collated with other elements such as value, space, texture, form, and shape. The artist managed to use space in the most effective way possible to show the viewer the negative and positive areas or a sense of depth attained in a work of art. He managed to distinguish the earth and the sky by the use of space. Moreover, the value is denoted by the lightness and darkness of the colors and tones.

It is through this that the interpreters were able to figure out the depiction of light. Vincent Van Gogh applies a fascinating approach through the use of spacing and lines with the Starry Night over the Rhone. This assisted every aspect of the painting to be clear. One could interpret a lot of things and the reason for everything in the paint through the illumination of the light and the approach that Vincent Van Gogh gave to it (Thomson & Museum of Modern Art, 2008). Giving much focus to the canvas, one will easily notice that Vincent did use the bank as a straight across the line to divide it up. This makes us have the option of having the focus to the water or the eye. Besides this, there is another interesting thing of the canvas. It is the direction of the reflection showing from the water. Through this, Vincent Van Gogh in this tries to give us this sense of gentle movement with the reflection of the lighting that is being projected going on a downward course (Thomson & Museum of Modern Art, 2008). By this, he was able to achieve a lot of things that any viewer was looking at the painting could notice. The manner of lighting plays a very significant role in any piece of art. It gives the platforms under which the viewer can analyze the piece of work in a lot of different ways. This has been achieved by Vincent Van Gogh in his painting as his light illuminations techniques have all been designed to give a reflection to an important element of the piece of art.

Furthermore, Vincent Van Gogh tries to indicate to the viewer the grouping from the stars, to the lights that are from the houses to the reflection from the water that also makes us get to know the need of lighting going in a downward motion. Through this aspect, we can appreciate the nature of lighting that is given by nature as well as the illumination that the lights from the houses give. The interaction of these two sources of light creates a wonderful illumination. When this is put down on painting or in a photo the way Vincent Van Gogh did put, we can see a true reflection of the society. This shows that artists are a true reflection of our society. They put down different aspects of the society in painting or another form of arts.

Vincent Van Gogh in his painting gives us a boat that is intended to show us or make us see the correlation being that the boat appears to be like it’s just about to sink, or it is broken. Another possible interpretation that can be deducted from this is that the object that Van Gogh portrays which is the stars to mean it (Soth, L. (1986). This is totally upon the viewer of the piece of art to have his or her interpretation. Regardless of the perspective that the viewer of the art will have concerning the painting, they all ring a message to the mind of the viewer. Regardless of the way one takes, they will appear either as a flower or as fireworks. Furthermore, there is also a sense of false appearances with the houses. When one stares from the bank, one will notice that there is only a bunch of bright lights. However, when one pays keen attention to the water that is close to the bank, one will see or acknowledge the shadow or the darknesses of the houses. The painting is just unique and gives room to every viewer to have his or her perspective. All the perspectives give sense to what the painting is all about.

Most of the viewers of the painting will wonder the motives behind Vincent Von Gogh creating the Starry Night Over the Rhone. From the analysis of the paintings, there are a lot of reasons that one can deduce. Sone of them can be valid while others can be wrong. It is however not easy to know the main motive behind the paint being that Vincent Van Gogh is not alive to explain his reason for coming up with the painting. However, most of the viewer’s interpretation can idealize that he was just looking outside directly through the window. He intended to portray how the night appears beautiful and give the impression through painting. This indeed was achieved because almost all interpretation will converge at the point of showing how the night can be beautiful through the illumination of the light from the starts, light from the hoses and how the lights reflect the water bodies that are around. Others will also interpret that when all these beauties are mixed with a firework or some artificial works, the night becomes a magnificent scenery. Another perspective that one can interpret the painting by Vincent Van Gogh is that the canvas was the definition of him being at peace is that as stated before, Vincent Van Gogh while was young was categorized as emotional and depressing. Regardless of all these interpretation on what could have driven him to come up with the piece of art, the painting is amazing and can get glued to it while viewing.

In conclusion, regardless of whether Vincent Von Gogh was looking at the river reflecting or looking at the sky on what’s going on the river bank or in the sky, he was able to give a very clear picture of what goes on in the night with the interaction of the natural and artificial lights on the land. Through looking at the painting, one will think that he or she is actually in Paris taking a look at the river while enjoying the scenery. The painting was a success, and the message that Vincent Van Gogh was trying to put across to his target audience was well communicated.