Inside of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City holds the iconic painting, The Starry Night. Dutch Expressionist Vincent Van Gogh created this painting in 1889, using oil on canvas. The Starry Night is considered to be one of the most famous works of art of all time and is the perfect idealization of Post-Impressionist Art. Post-Impressionism is the reaction of impressionists against the naturalism to discover line, form, color, and emotion. Van Gogh turned to art as an outlet for expressing his mental turmoil and depressed emotions, ideally represented in The Starry Night.
Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. He was known for his style and how it expressed beauty, color, and much emotion. He battled with intense …show more content…
These letters allow us to know more about Van Gogh’s life and have an insight into his mental state. The letters form an anecdote to the works that he was creating at the time. In June of 1889, he was constructing The Starry Night and writing letters. The following are snippets from certain letters, “As for me, my health is good, and as for my brain, that will be, let us hope, a matter of time and patience.” It is clear here that he is still suffering when he talks about hope and patience. Optimistically, he sounds willing to get better and continue painting. Another quote from a letter of his was, “It is queer that every time I try to reason with myself to get a clear idea of things, why I came here and that after all it is only an accident like any other, a terrible dismay and horror seizes me and prevents me from thinking.” (Jansen). Here he seems very to think positive, it sounds like he wants to be treated for his mental illness, but there is a burden of how to get there. This may be why in the painting the sky is so ruptured and the town below it is very calm; he thinks smoothly, but when he tries to think about why he is in rehab, his contrasting emotions rise up and burst like the sky and stars. Later, he wrote to his mother, “I so often think that after some time your marriage, I hope, will give you back your old vigor, and that a year from now you will be in better health.” (Jansen). He writes this to encourage her about how time can heal her through her marriage, and how she will be better again. I think Van Gogh is writing to himself here (excluding the marriage) and thinking that the longer he stays in rehab, the better the chances that he will get better and find better health. The last letter from June 1889 was, “The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts, I should like to make something of them like the canvases of the sunflowers,
Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853 in Groot-Zundert, Netherlands. He was known for his style and how it expressed beauty, color, and much emotion. He battled with intense …show more content…
These letters allow us to know more about Van Gogh’s life and have an insight into his mental state. The letters form an anecdote to the works that he was creating at the time. In June of 1889, he was constructing The Starry Night and writing letters. The following are snippets from certain letters, “As for me, my health is good, and as for my brain, that will be, let us hope, a matter of time and patience.” It is clear here that he is still suffering when he talks about hope and patience. Optimistically, he sounds willing to get better and continue painting. Another quote from a letter of his was, “It is queer that every time I try to reason with myself to get a clear idea of things, why I came here and that after all it is only an accident like any other, a terrible dismay and horror seizes me and prevents me from thinking.” (Jansen). Here he seems very to think positive, it sounds like he wants to be treated for his mental illness, but there is a burden of how to get there. This may be why in the painting the sky is so ruptured and the town below it is very calm; he thinks smoothly, but when he tries to think about why he is in rehab, his contrasting emotions rise up and burst like the sky and stars. Later, he wrote to his mother, “I so often think that after some time your marriage, I hope, will give you back your old vigor, and that a year from now you will be in better health.” (Jansen). He writes this to encourage her about how time can heal her through her marriage, and how she will be better again. I think Van Gogh is writing to himself here (excluding the marriage) and thinking that the longer he stays in rehab, the better the chances that he will get better and find better health. The last letter from June 1889 was, “The cypresses are always occupying my thoughts, I should like to make something of them like the canvases of the sunflowers,