Emotion And Color In Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch artist born March 30, 1853 who moved to France at the age of 27 and became influenced by Impressionist art. Van Gogh’s work has immense emotion and color that helped influence art of the 20th century modern art; however he only sold one painting during his lifetime. Unfortunately, the renowned artist suffered from mental illness and spent most of his time agonizing at an asylum in Saint Remy, France where he painted portraits to convey his emotional and spiritual state. In 1889, Van Gogh was released from the asylum and ended his misery in 1890 by shooting himself (Department of European Paintings). One of Vincent van Gogh’s famous artworks “The Starry Night” was painted oil on canvas in the summer of 1889 from his cell room at the asylum in Saint Remy. …show more content…
Vincent van Gogh’s, “The Starry Night” has been recognized for several hundred years as an astonishing example of how emotions may be revealed through brushstroke texture, color, and descriptive images.
Many significant visual qualities are found throughout Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” that aid the viewer in understanding his emotional state when the portrait was painted at the asylum. A dominate form in “The Starry Night” is line. The entire image is articulated in the character of the lines swaying and curving through major line strokes that disregard any basic, clean shapes of a constant color. Most of the shapes found in this painting are undulating, repeating circles and swirls that are found in the