Analysis Of Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night

Almost everyone knows the story of Vincent van Gogh’s because he was taught in our high school’s art class, the main thing that had stuck with many of us is how he cut off his ear to present it to a woman as a gift. After that occasion, the painting The Starry Night was created in 1889. Without any background about Van Gogh’s situation at the moment, we can tell that there are problems going on in his life by the deception of this painting. The panting is off from a view that can overlook a town, the town is dark and appears to be non-welcoming and since it is viewed from a distance, we get the sense that its and outsiders point of view. He uses the lines in the sky to present a storm in the waking, using the blues, which represents negative

There are two objects in this painting that connects to the stormy sky, the church and the three. Seeing that they connect to the storm above, we can assume that they are, in some way, part of his mixed emotions. This painting represents a time of his life to where he wasn’t stable and had some metal difficulties, and because of those difficulties he was confused. After doing some research, it was concluded that he in fact was at the truing point “in his art and in his life” (B. Nov. 1941). In the article, “Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’”, it is determined that in his earlier work, he was an Impressionist, painting realistic things and object, the way a person would see them, for example like the panting, The Potato Eater, 1885. However, he was struggling with this because of the influences of some of his friends that believed an artist can paint not only by facts but emotions, known as Expressionism. Torn between these mixed emotions, van Gogh’s had suffered from two manic depression attacks and was placed in St. Rémy, a sanatorium after the towns people signed a petition for him to be committed. Feeling like the towns people were out to get his, it’s no wonder why he painted the town to be dark