Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh's painting The Starry Night is very significant and impacted the art world as we know it today. Van Gogh was one of the artists that art historians recognized as part of the "Post-Impressionism" era. During the Expressionism movement, Artist began using feeling in their artwork and was not focused on the appearance of the piece. The Starry Night is a prime example of this type of painting, representing Van Gogh's struggle with depression and agony.

Van Gogh's painting The Starry Night is an oil painting created in 1889. At this time, Van Gogh had psychological problems and was hospitalized at Saint-Remy psychiatric asylum. Even though Van Gogh was going through a terrible ordeal in his life, this piece of art is the most recognized by viewers. When at first glance, this painting appears to be very chaotic, which shows the emotions Van Gogh was feeling, but it really is very orderly. The Starry Night, in my opinion, is all about repetition, order, and light.

The rectangular shaped painting has wild brush strokes yet has subtle movement and this draws the viewers' eyes to move along with each brush stroke. There are so many different items to look at in this piece of art but it keeps the viewer starring trying to capture every detail. Van Gogh used dashes of impasto to create this look, which are thickly applied paint giving the painting a rough surface texture. As you look at the painting you can see it is a landscape during the nighttime which is offset by the bright sky and the pulsating stars over a quaint little village. Overall the main shapes in this piece are the circles in the sky, the circles around the crescent moon, and also the circles around the stars.

The eleven stars in the sky seem to dominate the painting. Some believe the eleven stars reflect the story of Joseph in the Old Testament, because in Van Gogh's early years he was a devoted Christian. As to the number of stars that he painted, we will never know the under lying meaning but every piece of art compels viewers to analyze its meaning. Van Gogh did believe that after death you would rise to the stars and would remain there for an eternity. The sky is the main focal point in this masterpiece. The different shade of light in the swirls and waves of the skyline, which could be either clouds or the Milky Way, emphasize the light source of the stars and moon. The colors Van Gogh chose where blues and yellows which depicts how many hues of the combined colors there are. By combining the two colors, this gives the deeper and lighter contrast in the background. To me the dark color scheme with the lightened swirling patterns show Van Gogh's state of internal conflict with himself.

The dark object to the left in the foreground also demands viewers' attention and should dominate this painting but we are drawn to other elements first. The large cypress tree symbolizes both