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The name Vincent Van Gogh rings a bell in any person’s ear.  His beautiful painting, “Starry Night” is a recognized piece of art throughout the world.  Vincent Van Gogh was a troubled and tormented soul who sought sanity through the stroke of a paintbrush.  Many people didn’t take his art seriously and he became the legend he is now after ending his life with a pistol in 1890.  Van Gogh produced “Starry Night” in 1889 at a mental hospital in southern France.  With his thick brush strokes and swirls of uncommon colors, Van Gogh often said “he had no technique.”  He depicted a beautiful night in Saint-Remy and a tormented soul full of anguish and dissatisfaction.  The result is a famous and gorgeous starry night over a town with the mountains rolling in the background.  “Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh should be preserved because of its modern popularity and the story it tells of creative pain.  <!--more-->

Van Gogh’s art has been designated to the post-impressionist period on the art timeline.  Properly named following the Impressionist group in 1886.  Artists looked to the natural world for inspiration and embraced nature’s beauty.  A lot of post-impressionist artwork had symbolic and highly personal meanings.  Van Gogh portrayed his mental pain with the paint brush; it was not only a starry night but perhaps an afterlife or wish for death.  Typical paintings came from one of Van Gogh’s colleagues, Paul Gauguin.  He lived a very abnormal and emotional life as well.  When I say abnormal, I mean, that not normal of society at that time.  Gauguin’s “The Day of the God” suggests birth and regeneration.  Puddles of water look like fetuses and they all lay around a woman bathing in the water.  They surround a figure at the top center of the painting that looks like the creator God.  It is an outside scene but holds depth and weight in symbolism.  The way the puddles suggest human fetuses is the common use of the natural world artists were influenced by.  Gaugin and Van Gogh lived together so you would think they shared a lot of the same styles and influenced each other but they were in fact very different.  “The Day of the God” has definite shapes and distorted ones.  They are clear and defined while “Starry Night” kind of all swirls together.  The million brush strokes make the whole picture clear as day.  Both paintings are of the natural world.  Post impressionists were also very intrigued by the use of natural light in their artwork.  Van Gogh used pinks and purples to color his sky and give a natural light to the stars which shined so bright.  Gauguin also used bright colors with orange water and pink sand.  Both artists experienced financial disparity, fear, discontent, and sadness.  Gauguin got up and left his family to travel after feeling no recognition at home.  They were both influenced by different cultures of art.  Gauguin was influenced by Africa and Native Americans.  Van Gogh was influence by Japanese art.  They lived together in Saint-Remy before Van Gogh was admitted to his last mental hospital.  Van Gogh depicted the natural world in his paintings but they had dreamy meanings.  “Looking at the stars always makes me dream, as simply as I dream over the black dots representing towns and villages on a map.  Why, I ask myself, shouldn’t the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France?  Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star.”  Other artists like Paul Cezanne looked for greater pictorial structure.  He often abstracted familiar objects to basic geometric shapes so the painting had different points of view.  Georges Seurat was another popular post-impressionist artist.  His “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” shows a holiday crowd relaxing.  Everyone is outdoors enjoying the day yet their faces or lifeless.  Most post impressionists used this symbolic meaning like Van Gogh, Seurat, Gaugin, and Cezanne.  They all painted common views of the world that everyone would see like the sky, a bread basket, a lake, mountains, etc.  Their meanings were not that of what you saw but most of what the soul was experiencing.

“Starry Night” along with all the other Van Gogh paintings were not noticed or praised at the time of their making.  This might have attributed to Van Gogh’s deep frustration with life and his own art.  His brother Theo was an art dealer and Van Gogh would send him his art so he could sell it and try to make some money for the two.  Theo was very unsuccessful in selling his brothers art.  People weren’t accepting of it.  This is what makes the art so unique.  People were almost waiting to appreciate it until Van Gogh killed himself.  The irony of “Starry Night” and Van Gogh constantly wanting to be accepted is so sad.  Van Gogh lived a life of severe pain and mental instability.  One time, after him and Gaugin got into a fight, he cut off his ear, and took it to a prostitute at the local brothel.  This put him in the mental hospital where he painted “Starry Night” starring through the barred windows.  Not only do Van Gogh’s thick brush strokes make his painting unique but also the stuff going on behind the scenes in his head.  A mind clearly very sick created some of the most important and legendary art people have ever seen.  A lot of artists like Gaugin and Cezanne used defined shapes.  Van Gogh created his own beautiful mess.  “Starry Night” swirls around with different colors and thick brush strokes.  You wouldn’t be able to tell the beauty from a thick messy brush stroke but it comes together as a whole.  It wasn’t until after his death people noticed Van Gogh’s art and truly recognized and appreciated the mental anguish he suffered.

Today “Starry Night” travels the world to different museums.  It has been in The Museum of Modern Art in New York City and The Van Gogh Museum.  This painting is highly appreciated and prints can be bought everywhere.  Its popularity at museums has spiked a ton of interest in the painting.  Scholars have studied and museum curators have pondered.  What did Van Gogh feel?  What was going through his mind?  Many people think about the symbolism of art and what Van Gogh really meant painting the starry night.  As a little girl, I had a copy of it on my wall in my room that I bought in a boutique in Ruidoso, New Mexico.  At the Barnes and Noble down the street from my apartment there is “Starry Night” stationary you can buy.  It’s a common print people see today.  It has already reached its peak importance and remains a key piece of history to the post-impressionist movement.  Van Gogh is the most popular example of a tormented mind which has gone hand in hand with creativity since the birth of it.  There has been only praise about Van Gogh’s work since his death and this has continued on to today.  He is considered an artistic genius and will be forever legendary, especially “Starry Night.”

I will forever hold a nostalgic memory when I look at “Starry Night.”  It hung on my bedroom window in strings of beads as I looked out curious about the night trying to go to sleep.  It was my own view of the stars in San Antonio, Texas.  I find the swirls of the stars and the thick brush strokes so uniquely placed and mapped out.  Only a natural world could help Van Gogh place the stars perfectly.  I also love all the colors Van Gogh used.  He used color to depict darkness.  Pinks and purples show the dark blue sky and then the yellows and whites contrast to give the full night effect.  The rolling hills and quiet town give it a mysterious and dreamy effect.  It is a gorgeous painting that will definitely be forever preserved in my memory and heart.

Future generations should be aware of Van Gogh’s unique style.  His thick brush strokes and painting the natural world are really important characteristics to art.  Specifically the post-impressionist movement, but should continue to influence art for future generations.  Nature is natural beauty that should always be recreated.  The stars have always been studied and have played an important role in our culture scientifically and I feel this painting gave them importance artistically as well.  Our culture saves and studies all types of art, literature, and music.  It’s important to know who the important players were in developing art culture as we know it.  Vincent Van Gogh will be forever recognized for his “Starry Night” as well as a few other paintings.  He will also be recognized and appreciated for all his troubles.  Creativity and insanity may go hand in hand after all.

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Works Cited

"The Art Story: Post-Impressionism Movement." <em>The Art Story: Your Guide to Modern Art</em>. The Art Story Foundation, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. &lt;<a href="http://www.theartstory.org/movement-post-impressionism.htm" target="_blank">http://www.theartstory.org/movement-post-impressionism.htm</a>&gt;.

This website provides information about the post-impressionist movement. It includes concepts, styles, and artists. I used it for background information about the post-impressionist movement and to know about other artists and their styles.

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Brooks, David. "Vincent Van Gogh: Biography." <em>The Vincent Van Gogh Gallery</em>. The Van Gogh Museum, 1996. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. &lt;<a href="http://www.vggallery.com/misc/bio.htm" target="_blank">http://www.vggallery.com/misc/bio.htm</a>&gt;.

This website is The Van Gogh Museum's and they provide all sorts of information about his paintings including "Starry Night." I used it for a detailed biography of Vincent Van Gogh.

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Fiero, Gloria K. The Humanistic Tradition. Vol 2. Books 3-6. 6<sup>th</sup> ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. eBook. McGraw-Hill’s Connect. 2011. Web. Fall 2012.

This textbook provides information and history on art, religion, philosophy, and architecture.  I used this textbook for research on Vincent Van Gogh and the post-impressionist period. I collected research on “Starry Night” as well as “The Day of the God.”

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"Paul Gauguin Biography." <em>Paul Gauguin: The Complete Works</em>. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. &lt;http://www.paul-gauguin.net/biography.html&gt;.

This website gave information on all of Gauguin's paintings and a biography of his life. I used it for background information about his style and technique. I also used it for information about his relationship with Vincent Van Gogh.

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Trachtman, Paul. "Van Gogh's Night Visions." <em>Smithsonian.com</em>. Smithsonian Magazine, Jan. 2009. Web. 05 Nov. 2012. &lt;<a href="http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Night-Visions.html?c=y" target="_blank">http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/Night-Visions.html?c=y</a>&gt;.

This article gives insight of the symbolism behind Van Gogh's "Starry Night." It gives basic information about Van Gogh's life as well. I used it for basic research and for an opinion on his art.

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