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 fine arts, and various reproductions of this canvas decorate the interiors of many houses. The circumstances of the creation of "Starry Night", where and how it was written, as well as previous unfulfilled dreams artist, 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 stars sparkling in the moonlight was painted, 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 saw another dream: behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars worshiped 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 picture 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 canvas is the most outstanding work 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 an 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 whirlwind in the sky reminds Milky Way, about galaxies, about 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.
Geographers try in vain to determine what locality is depicted at the bottom of the canvas, and astronomers are trying to find the constellations in the picture. The image of the night sky is 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.
"Starlight Night"
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 middle 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
From the paintings of Vincent van Gogh, it is quite easy to trace the artist’s medical history: from gray subjects tending toward 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 add dynamics to the frozen night, Van Gogh came up with a special technique - when painting the moon, stars, sky, he laid 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.
The famous incident with Gauguin also took place in Arles, when after another quarrel Van Gogh attacked his friend with a razor in his hands, and then, either as a sign of repentance or next 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.
Vincent Van Gogh is a rather mysterious person, his creative path went through alcohol addiction and a stay in a mental hospital.
History of creation
The painting “Starry Night” was created by the author in 1889 in the hospital of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. This painting is recognized as a masterpiece. It is located in the Museum contemporary art in NYC. While in the clinic, the artist painted about 150 works. Van Gogh's brother Theo arranged for permission to paint in the hospital. To distract himself from the attacks that tormented the author, he could paint several paintings a day. this work created by Van Gogh from memory, and not from life. This makes it stand out from other paintings.
Composition of the painting
In the painting “Starry Night,” the crescent moon and stars occupy a special place. They immediately attract the viewer's attention due to the special technique of execution. The light emanating from the moon and stars creates the appearance of a spiral, which only emphasizes the unsurpassed beauty of the celestial bodies in the picture. In his creation, the artist tries to combine unattainable greatness (stars, month) and earthly life (cypress tree, village). The cypress trees seem to want to touch the sky, to join the gentle dance of the luminaries. Thanks to the peculiarity of the strokes, it seems that the celestial bodies are moving in the sky.
WITH right side the artist depicted the village. Blue color the roofs reflect the moonlight even more. The picture is filled with mystery and splendor, even though it includes dark colors. But against the blue background, the yellow light of the stars and moon looks amazing.
Technique, execution, techniques
The technique of creating the night sky and conveying all the necessary shades was not yet mastered during this period. Vincent Van Gogh was practically a pioneer in this field of art. Dutch artist uses a combination of dark blue color, different shades yellow, while adding dark green, heavenly, brown shades. The color scheme is impressive in its uniqueness. All colors unite and complement each other, while emphasizing the subtlety and depth of the picture.
The canvas depicts 11 stars and a waning month. So the artist wanted to draw a parallel with Jesus Christ and the 12 apostles.
The author of Starry Night was hospitalized with a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy. Before that, he led an immoral lifestyle, abused absinthe, and worked hard. These factors led to mental disorders. In 1888, while intoxicated and quarreling with his friend Paul Gauguin, the artist cut off his earlobe. The artist's neighbors complained to the mayor's office about him because of the constant noise. Thus, he ended up in the clinic.
Van Gogh “Starry Night” – original painting in high resolution: cost and description of the great work of art.
The price of the original of this painting, according to preliminary estimates, is about 300 million dollars. This is one of the most expensive paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, which, however, is unlikely to ever be sold. Since 1941, the painting has been in the Museum of Modern Art of the City of New York under heavy security, attracting the attention of thousands of connoisseurs. The genius of the picture lies in the amazing dynamism of the starry sky, the deep and reasonable ease of movement of the heavenly bodies. At the same time, the serene town located in the panorama below looks heavy, calm, like the sea in cloudy weather. The harmony of the picture is a combination of light and heavy, earthly and heavenly. Since not everyone can afford to go to New York to look at the original, last years
Many artists appeared who very well repeated the work of the great maestro of expressionism. You can buy a copy of Van Gogh's painting "Starry Night" for about 300 euros - on real canvas, made in oil. The price of cheaper copies is from 20 euros, they are usually made by printing. Of course, even a very good copy does not give the same sensations as the original. Why? Because Van Gogh used some special swirls of colors. Moreover, in a completely atypical way. It is they who give the picture dynamics. How he achieved this is very difficult to say; most likely, Van Gogh himself did not know about it. At that time, he was treated in a mental hospital, having problems with damage to the temporal region of the brain. Probably his mind was “damaged” by his genius, but it is extremely difficult to repeat the technique of painting this picture.
Van Gogh's original painting "Starry Night" was translated into an interactive version in Greece - flows of paint were given movement. And everyone was once again amazed at the unearthly dynamism of this picture.
Van Gogh Starry Night, the original painting in good resolution, even on a computer screen, can captivate the viewer’s attention for a long time.
“I still have a passionate need,” I will allow myself this word, “of religion. That’s why I left the house at night and began to draw stars,” Van Gogh wrote to his brother Theo.
It's worth going to New York just to meet her, " Starry night"Van Gogh.
Here I would like to give the text of my work on the analysis of this picture. Initially, I wanted to rework the text so that it would be more consistent with the article for the blog, but due to glitches in Word and lack of time, I will post it in its original form, which was difficult to restore after a program failure. I hope even the original text will be at least somewhat interesting.
Vincent Van Gogh(1853-1890) – a prominent representative of post-impressionism. Despite the difficult path of life and quite late development Van Gogh as an artist, he was distinguished by perseverance and hard work, which helped achieve great success mastery of drawing and painting techniques. Over the ten years of his life devoted to art, Van Gogh went from an experienced viewer (he began his career as an art seller, so he was familiar with many works) to a master of drawing and painting. This short period became the most vivid and emotional in the artist’s life.
The identity of Van Gogh is shrouded in mystery in the performance modern culture. Although Van Gogh left a large epistolary legacy (extensive correspondence with his brother Theo Van Gogh), accounts of his life were compiled long after his death and often contained fictitious stories and distorted views of the artist. In this regard, the image of Van Gogh emerged as a crazy artist who, in a fit, cut off his ear, and later completely shot himself. This image attracts the viewer with the mystery of the work of a crazy artist, balancing on the brink of genius and madness and mystery. But if you examine the facts of Van Gogh’s biography, his detailed correspondence, then many myths, including those about his madness, are debunked.
Van Gogh's work has become accessible to a wide circle only after his death. At first his work was attributed to different directions, but they were later included in Post-Impressionism. Van Gogh's handwriting is unlike anything else, so even with other representatives of post-impressionism it cannot be compared. This is a special way of applying a smear, using different equipment strokes in one work, a certain coloring, expression, compositional features, means of expression. Exactly this characteristic manner We will analyze Van Gogh using the example of the painting “Starry Night” in this work.
Formal-stylistic analysis
"Starry Night" is one of the most famous works Van Gogh. The painting was painted in June 1889 in Saint-Rémy and has been kept in the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941. The painting is painted in oil on canvas, dimensions – 73x92 cm, format – horizontally elongated rectangle, this easel painting. Due to the nature of the technique, the picture should be viewed at a sufficient distance.
Looking at the picture, we see a night landscape. Most of the canvas is occupied by the sky - the stars, the moon, depicted large on the right, and the moving night sky. Trees rise in the foreground on the right, and a town or village is depicted below on the left, hidden in the trees. The background is dark hills on the horizon, gradually becoming higher from left to right. The painting, based on the plot described, undoubtedly belongs to the landscape genre. We can say that the artist brings to the fore the expressiveness and some conventionality of what is depicted, since the main role in the work is played by expressive distortion (color, in the technique of brushstrokes, etc.).
The composition of the picture is generally balanced - on the right with dark trees below, and on the left with a bright yellow moon above. Because of this, the composition tends to be diagonal, including because of the hills increasing from right to left. In it, the sky prevails over the earth, since it occupies most of the canvas, that is, the upper part prevails over the lower. At the same time, the composition also has a spiral structure that gives the initial impetus to the movement, expressed in a spiraling flow in the sky in the center of the composition. This spiral sets in motion some of the trees, the stars, the rest of the sky, the moon, and even the lower part of the composition - the village, the trees, the hills. Thus, the composition transforms from the static nature usual for the landscape genre into a dynamic, fantastic plot that captivates the viewer. Therefore, it is impossible to distinguish the background and clear planning in the work. The traditional background, the background, ceases to be a background, since it is included in the overall dynamics of the picture, and the foreground, if you take the trees and the village, is included in the spiral movement and ceases to stand out. The layout of the picture is vague and unsteady due to the combination of spiral and diagonal dynamics. Based on the compositional solution, it can be assumed that the artist’s angle of view is directed from bottom to top, since most of the canvas is occupied by the sky.
Undoubtedly, in the process of perceiving the picture, the viewer is involved in interaction with the image. This is obvious from the described compositional solution and techniques, that is, the dynamics of the composition and its direction. And also thanks to the color scheme of the painting - the color scheme, bright accents, palette, brush stroke technique.
A deep space has been created in the painting. This is achieved due to the color scheme, composition and movement of strokes, and the difference in the size of strokes. Including due to the difference in the size of the image - big trees, a small village and trees near it, smaller hills on the horizon, a large moon and stars. The color scheme builds depth due to the dark foreground of the trees, the muted colors of the village and the trees around it, the bright color accents of the stars and the moon, the dark hills on the horizon, shaded by a light strip of the sky.
The picture does not meet the criterion in many ways linearity, and most expresses just picturesqueness. Since all forms are expressed through color and strokes. Although in the image of the bottom plan - the town, trees and hills, a distinction is made with separate dark contour lines. It can be said that the artist deliberately connects certain linear aspects to emphasize the difference between the upper and lower planes of the painting. Therefore, the top plan, the most important compositionally, in meaning and in terms of color and technical solutions, is the most expressive and picturesque. This part of the painting is literally sculpted with color and brushstrokes; there are no contour or any linear elements.
Concerning flatness And depths, then the picture gravitates towards depth. This is expressed in the color scheme - contrasts, darker or smoky shades, in technique - due to the different directions of strokes, their sizes, in composition and dynamics. At the same time, the volume of objects is not clearly expressed, as it is hidden by large strokes. Volumes are only outlined with individual contour strokes or created through color combinations of strokes.
The role of light in the picture is not significant in comparison with the role of color. But we can say that the sources of light in the picture are the stars and the moon. This can be seen in the brightness of the settlement and trees in the valley and the darker part of the valley on the left, in the dark trees in the foreground and the darkening hills on the horizon, especially those located on the right under the moon.
The silhouettes depicted are closely related to each other. They are inexpressive due to the fact that they are painted with large strokes; for the same reason, the silhouettes are not valuable in themselves. They cannot be perceived separately from the entire canvas. Therefore, we can talk about the desire for integrity within the picture, achieved by technology. In this regard, we can talk about the generality of what is depicted on the canvas. There is no detail due to the scale of what is depicted (far away, therefore small towns, trees, hills) and the technical solution of the painting - drawing with large strokes, dividing what is depicted into separate colors with such strokes. Therefore, it cannot be said that the picture conveys the variety of textures of what is depicted. But a generalized, rough and exaggerated hint of the difference in shapes, textures, and volumes due to the technical solution of the painting is given by the direction of the strokes, their size and the actual color.
Color in "Starry Night" plays main role. Composition, dynamics, volumes, silhouettes, depth, light are subject to color. Color in a painting is not an expression of volume, but a meaning-forming element. Thus, due to the color expression, the radiance of the stars and the moon is exaggerated. And this color expression creates not just an emphasis on them, but gives them significance within the picture, creates their semantic content. The color in the painting is not so much optically accurate as it is expressive. Using color combinations creates artistic image, expressiveness of the canvas. The painting is dominated by pure colors, combinations of which create shades, volumes and contrasts that influence perception. The boundaries of color spots are distinguishable and expressive, since each stroke creates a color spot that is distinguishable in contrast with neighboring strokes. Van Gogh focuses on spot-strokes that fragment the volumes of what is depicted. This way he achieves greater expression of color and shape and achieves dynamics in the painting.
Van Gogh creates certain colors and their shades using a combination of color spots and strokes that complement each other. The darkest parts of the canvas are not reduced to black, but only to a combination of dark shades of different colors, creating in perception a very dark shade, close to black. The same thing happens with the lightest places - there is no pure white, but there is a combination of strokes of white with shades of other colors, in combination with which white ceases to be the most important in perception. Highlights and reflections are not clearly expressed, as they are smoothed out by color combinations.
We can say that the painting contains rhythmic repetitions of color combinations. The presence of such combinations both in the image of the valley and the settlement, and in the sky creates the integrity of the perception of the picture. Different combinations of shades of blue with each other and with other colors throughout the canvas show that it is the main color developing in the picture. The contrasting combination of blue with shades of yellow is interesting. The surface texture is not smooth, but embossed due to the volume of strokes, in some places even with gaps in the blank canvas. The strokes are clearly distinguishable and significant for the expression of the picture and its dynamics. The strokes are long, sometimes larger or smaller. Applied in different ways, but with quite thick paint.
Returning to binary oppositions, it must be said that the picture is characterized by openness of form. Since the landscape is not fixated on itself, on the contrary, it is open, it can be expanded beyond the boundaries of the canvas, which is why the integrity of the picture will not be violated. The picture is inherent atectonic beginning. Because all the elements of the picture strive for unity, they cannot be taken out of the context of the composition or canvas, they do not have their own integrity. All parts of the picture are subordinated to a single concept and mood and do not have autonomy. This is expressed technically in composition, in dynamics, in color patterns, and in the technical solution of strokes. The picture represents incomplete (relative) clarity depicted. Since only parts of the depicted objects (tree settlement houses) are visible, many overlap each other (trees, field houses), the scales have been changed to achieve semantic accents (the stars and the moon are exaggerated).
Iconographic and iconological analysis
The actual plot of “Starry Night” or the type of landscape depicted is difficult to compare with paintings by other artists, much less to place in a series of similar works. Landscapes depicting night effects were not used by the Impressionists, since for them it was precisely lighting effects V different time daylight hours and work in the open air. Post-Impressionists, even if they did not paint landscapes from life (like Gauguin, who often painted from memory), still chose daylight hours and used new ways of depicting light effects and individual techniques. Therefore, the depiction of night landscapes can be called a feature of Van Gogh’s work (“ Night terrace cafe", "Starry Night", "Starry Night over the Rhone", "Church in Auvers", "Road with Cypresses and Stars").
Characteristic of Van Gogh's night landscapes is the use of color contrasts to emphasize important elements of the picture. The contrast of shades of blue and yellow was most often used. Night landscapes were mostly painted by Van Gogh from memory. In this regard, they paid more attention not to reproducing real lighting effects seen or of interest to the artist, but emphasized the expressiveness and unusualness of light and color effects. Therefore, light and color effects are exaggerated, which gives them additional meaning in the paintings.
If we turn to the iconological method, then in the study of “Starry Night” we can trace additional meanings in the number of stars on the canvas. Some researchers connect the eleven stars in Van Gogh's painting with the Old Testament story of Joseph and his eleven brothers. “Listen, I had a dream again,” he said. “There was in it the sun and the moon and eleven stars, and they all bowed down to me.” Genesis 37:9. Given Van Gogh's knowledge of religion, his study of the Bible and his attempts to become a priest, the inclusion of this story as additional meaning justified. Although it is difficult to consider this reference to the Bible as determining the semantic content of the picture, because the stars make up only part of the canvas, and the depicted town, hills and trees are not related to the biblical plot.
Biographical method
When considering The Starry Night, it is difficult to do without the biographical method of research. Van Gogh painted it in 1889 while he was in the Saint-Rémy hospital. There, at the request of Theo Van Gogh, Vincent was allowed to paint in oils and make drawings during periods of improvement in his condition. Periods of improvement were accompanied by creative upsurge. Van Gogh devoted all his available time to working in the open air and wrote quite a lot.
It is noteworthy that “Starry Night” was written from memory, which is unusual for Van Gogh’s creative process. This circumstance can emphasize the special expressiveness, dynamics and color of the picture. On the other hand, these features of the picture can be explained by mental state the artist while he was in the hospital. His social circle and opportunities for action were limited, and the attacks occurred with varying degrees of intensity. And only during periods of improvement did he have the opportunity to do what he loved. During that period, painting became a particularly important way of self-realization for Van Gogh. Therefore, the canvases become more vibrant, expressive and dynamic. The artist puts great emotionality into them, since this is the only possible way express it.
It is interesting that Van Gogh, who describes his life, thoughts and works in detail in letters to his brother, mentions The Starry Night only in passing. And although by that time Vincent had already moved away from the church and church dogmas, he writes to his brother: “I still passionately need,” I will allow myself this word, “in religion. That's why I left the house at night and started drawing stars."
Comparing "Starry Night" with more early works, we can say that she is among the most expressive, emotional and exciting. Tracing the change in the style of writing throughout his creative work, there is a noticeable increase in expressiveness, color intensity, and dynamics in Van Gogh’s works. "Starry Night over the Rhone", written in 1888 - a year before "Starry Night", is not yet filled with that culmination of emotions, expressiveness, color richness and technical solutions. You can also notice that the paintings that followed “Starry Night” became more expressive, dynamic, emotionally heavy, and brighter in color. Most vivid examples- “Church in Auvers”, “Wheat field with crows”. This is how “Starry Night” can be described as the last and most expressive, dynamic, emotional and brightly colored period of Van Gogh’s work.
