Vincent Van Gogh Was Considered to Be From What Art Movement

In this post I will be taking a closer await at "The Starry Dark" past Vincent van Gogh, which he painted in 1889. With swirling lines and dramatic colors, this dreamy depiction is ane of van Gogh'south most iconic works.

"I don't know annihilation with certainty, just seeing the stars makes me dream." Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889

Interesting Facts About "The Starry Nighttime"

• The painting is based on van Gogh'due south view from his room in the mental asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. It was painted from memory during the solar day, as he was not able to paint from his room. Just he was able to create sketches in ink and charcoal.

Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night (Cartoon), 1889

• "The Starry Night" is 1 in a serial of 21 versions based on the aforementioned subject. It is the only night version in the series.
• Letters from van Gogh to his brother Theo provide insights into van Gogh'due south inspiration and fascination with the night. In 1889 he wrote, "Through the fe-barred window I can make out a foursquare of wheat in an enclosure, to a higher place which in the morning I meet the lord's day ascent in its glory."
• Although it is one of his most famous works, he initially considered the painting to be a failure based on his letters to Theo.
• Enquiry suggests the moon was not actually in the crescent phase, as depicted in the painting. Rather, information technology would have been about three-quarters full, but van Gogh probably painted it this way for stylistic reasons.
• Research also suggests that the brightest "star" in the painting, merely to the right of the large cypress tree (pictured below), may actually be Venus which would have been visible at the time van Gogh was painting in the asylum.

Swirling Brushwork Used to Create a Sense of Motility and Turbulence

When I think of "The Starry Nighttime", the offset thing which comes to mind is the swirling brushwork which creates a sense of movement and turbulence, especially in the sky. In fact, a physicist past the proper name of Jose Luis Aragon suggested that the swirling brushwork in paintings like "The Starry Night" accept an uncanny resemblance to the mathematical expression of existent turbulence shown in natural occurrences like whirlpools and air streams. You tin read more on this hither.

Van Gogh used a loaded castor to build upwardly a thick, impasto texture which yous can encounter in the close-ups below. This impasto texture is a key feature in many of van Gogh'south works.

(I go into much more detail on the fundamentals in my Painting Academy course.)

Color and Calorie-free

In a letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh wrote that the "starry dark is more than live and more richly colored than the mean solar day". This may explain his exaggerated employ of of color.

Van Gogh used rich blues and yellows to paint the dark sky, with lite greens scattered throughout. His lack of blending creates a broken color result, which seems to reiterate the sense of movement and turbulence in the painting. The colors announced to vibrate every bit your eyes bounciness between all the distinct colors.

He painted the low-cal of the stars, moon and houses past contrasting vivid yellows and oranges against the blues and greens in the residual of the painting. If you wait closely, you will encounter that in most cases he used a saturated yellow or orange in the centre, so used lighter but less saturated colors effectually the outside.

He used a low-cal light-green almost every bit an interim color to transition from the vivid yellows and oranges to the deep blues. Green beingness what you become when you mix yellow and bluish together. By doing that, in that location appears to be some kind of color gradation even though he did not employ any blending.

(If you desire to learn more about color, make sure to grab my gratis Colour Theory Cheat Sheet).

Where Realism Meets Abstraction

To me, this painting marks an interesting surface area somewhere between realism and complete abstraction. Van Gogh pushed the colors and style in social club to draw his unique interpretation of the world, just non so much as to lose all qualities of realism and representation. You know exactly what the subject area is, but it is far from what you would encounter in life.

I relish this expanse in painting as I think it allows for some personal expression, without departing too far from representational fine art standards.

But of form, this is all merely personal commentary which does not really matter. There is no correct answer with this kind of stuff. Some adore van Gogh for his unique interpretations, whilst others criticise him for stepping too far away from the boundaries of reality. Information technology is simply interesting to ponder over.

Key Takeaways from "The Starry Night"

Here are some of the key takeaways of "The Starry Night" which you could incorporate into your own paintings:

• Exaggerating sure elements like colour and perspective can actually assistance y'all depict the emotions and feelings y'all have virtually a discipline. In this instance, van Gogh exaggerated the colors, form and perspective to create a very dreamy depiction.
• To paint light, you lot could employ a strong colour dissimilarity, like yellow and orange confronting blueish.
• Directional brushwork tin can exist used to create a sense of move and turbulence in your painting.
• By repeating like techniques and processes, y'all end up creating a stiff style which people can retrieve you lot by.

Additional Readings

fitzwaternevill.blogspot.com

Source: https://drawpaintacademy.com/the-starry-night/

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