Van Gogh "Starry Night". 5 unexpected facts about the painting

Starry Night (1889). This is not just one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings. This is one of the most notable paintings in all of Western painting. What is so unusual about her?

Why, once you see it, you will not forget it? What kind of air vortices are depicted in the sky? Why are stars so big? And how did a painting that Van Gogh considered a failure become an “icon” for all expressionists?

I have collected the most interesting facts and mysteries of this picture. Which reveal the secret of her incredible attractiveness.

1 Starry Night Written In A Hospital For The Insane

The painting was painted during a difficult period in Van Gogh's life. Six months before, cohabitation with Paul Gauguin ended badly. Van Gogh's dream of creating a southern workshop, a union of like-minded artists, did not come true.

Paul Gauguin has left. He could no longer stay close to the unbalanced friend. Quarrels every day. And once Van Gogh cut off his earlobe. And handed it to a prostitute who preferred Gauguin.

Exactly the same as they did with a downed bull in a bullfight. The severed ear of the animal was given to the victorious Matador.

Van Gogh could not stand the loneliness and the collapse of his hopes for the workshop. His brother placed him in an asylum for the mentally ill in Saint-Remy. This is where Starry Night was written.

All his mental strength was strained to the limit. That's why the picture turned out so expressive. Bewitching. Like a bunch of bright energy.

2. “Starry night” is an imaginary, not a real landscape

This fact is very important. Because Van Gogh almost always worked from nature. This was the question over which they most often argued with Gauguin. He believed that you need to use the imagination. Van Gogh was of a different opinion.

But in Saint-Remy he had no choice. Patients were not allowed to go outside. Even work in his ward was forbidden. Brother Theo agreed with the authorities of the hospital that the artist was given a separate room for his workshop.

So in vain, researchers are trying to find out the constellation or determine the name of the town. Van Gogh took all this from his imagination.

3. Van Gogh depicted turbulence and the planet Venus

The most mysterious element of the picture. In a cloudless sky, we see eddy currents.

The researchers are sure that Van Gogh depicted such a phenomenon as turbulence. Which can hardly be seen with the naked eye.

Consciousness aggravated by mental illness was like a bare wire. To such an extent that Van Gogh saw what an ordinary mortal could not do.

400 years before that, another person realized this phenomenon. A person with a very subtle perception of the world around him. Leonardo da Vinci. He created a series of drawings with eddy currents of water and air.

Another interesting element of the picture is the incredibly large stars. In May 1889, Venus could be observed in the south of France. She inspired the artist to depict bright stars.

You can easily guess which of Van Gogh's stars is Venus.

4. Van Gogh thought Starry Night was a bad painting.

The painting is painted in a manner characteristic of Van Gogh. Thick long strokes. Which are neatly stacked next to each other. Juicy blue and yellow colors make it very pleasing to the eye.

However, Van Gogh himself considered his work a failure. When the picture got to the exhibition, he casually commented about it: “Maybe she will show others how to depict night effects better than I did.”

Such an attitude to the picture is not surprising. After all, it was not written from nature. As we already know, Van Gogh was ready to argue with others until he was blue in the face. Proving how important it is to see what you write.

Here is such a paradox. His “unsuccessful” painting became an “icon” for the expressionists. For whom the imagination was much more important than the outside world.

5. Van Gogh created another painting with a starry night sky

This is not the only Van Gogh painting with night effects. The year before, he had written Starry Night over the Rhone.

The Starry Night, which is kept in New York, is fantastic. The cosmic landscape overshadows the earth. We do not immediately even see the town at the bottom of the picture.

In "Starry Night" Musée d'Orsay the human presence is more obvious. Walking couple on the embankment. Lantern lights on the far shore. As you understand, it was written from nature.

Perhaps not in vain Gauguin urged Van Gogh to use his imagination more boldly. Then such masterpieces as "Starry Night" would be born much more?

When Van Gogh created this masterpiece, he wrote to his brother: “Why can't the bright stars in the sky be more important than the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take a train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we also die to get to the stars.”

Van Gogh will go to the stars very soon after these words. Literally a year later. He will shoot himself in the chest and bleed to death. Maybe it’s not for nothing that the moon is waning in the picture ...

Read about other creations of the artist in the article "The 5 Most Famous Van Gogh Masterpieces"

Test your knowledge by completing test "Do you know Van Gogh?"

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