Vincent Van Gogh Starry Night Analysis

Here van Gogh writes to his brother about life and what may lie ahead afterwards. Vincent van Gogh reflects his tumultuous journey to conquer his illness through his state of mind about life and death. The artist shows his ability to express his strongest and deepest emotions through the Starry Night by dwelling into spirituality.

Born on 30th March 1853, van Gogh was born in an upper-middle-class family. He spent a good part of his early life working for an art deal firm. As a young adult, van Gogh was very much into religion and made his goal to become a pastor. He later discarded religion due to personal experiences but maintained his spiritual dedication and redirected it towards his work. As a young painter, he developed his painting skills by integrating dark and dull tones. He encountered the French Impressionists in 1886, when he moved to Paris. Afterwards, he roamed the south of France and was persuaded by the vibrant sunlight, thus changing his color palette. Slowly his dull and dark tones turned

During most of his stay, he was confined to the grounds of the asylum. He could not paint when he experienced long periods of illness. When van Gogh was able to resume, painting provided solace and meaning. It served as a consolation for him, that after cycles of suffering, painting was able to grant him comfort. Arguably his most known work, The Starry Night, was painted in the asylum in the year of 1889. He considered the painting a failure in a letter to Émile Bernard, a fellow painter. He blames the failure on having painted stars that are too big. Van Gogh’s perceived failure actually contained his complex thoughts about his life and fantasies of afterlife in reaching the stars. He eventually considered it just a night study. It can be said that van Gogh turned himself over to his imagination, experiencing a heightened sense of reality during his