Final Essay On Starry Night Correction

Starry Night
A mono-toned starry night with twisty, long lines and cracked short lines unexpectedly generates a wonderful sight. It states darkness in the artist’s soul. The artist of the painting is none other than Vincent Willem Van Gogh, who is a famous Dutch post-Impressionist painter. He drew the painting in an asylum at Saint-Remy, France, in 1889. He cut off his own ear, and then he was sent to the asylum, which was the reason that he created the Starry Night in an asylum.
This masterpiece has been collected and exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941. The background of this painting is still under debate. Some scholars think this paint is an outside view of the hospital he was in, while others think that the painting is from his memory and mind, and not real. In many viewers’ eyes, the Starry Night is just a simple night painting, but the fact is that it is famous for having many different symbolic contents and colors.
The painting is called the Starry Night, and just as the name implies, it is on bestrewing many stars sky. From the Starry Night, there is the dark blue sky full of some swirling clouds, many shining stars, and a luminous moon. Those lines that are like eddies looks as if clouds, stars, and the moon are moving so that it keeps the views’ eyes moving to follow after those objects. These kinds of lines in painting can create fantastic visuals and change viewers’ souls. But in fact, the picture is actually motionless, and it is only the human’s mind that makes the picture appear to be in motion. The continuously rolling clouds and stars indicate that the inner-world of Van Gogh is tangled like them. At first, he can clearly draw those objects as usual, while he paints them in an expected way; such an idea is mostly from his mind that is filled with hesitation whether he should tell the viewers that he is suffering from insanity. Every line in the painting represents the artist’s sentiments at that time.
Under the sky, the mountains appear with dark shadows. However, the crashed curves make them appear similar to running water. Even if the mountains, which are absolutely impossible to move or shift, are unable to be unaffected by Van Gogh’s unstable inner-world at all, below the rolling hills of the horizon lies a small town. Such a dark and quiet small town produces many imaginations and forces the audience to recall the fear of the dark night when they were children. The tone of the painting shows the artist’s fear and dark inner-world along with his fading hope. The most obvious building in the center of the small town is the church. When Van Gogh was young, he sympathized with the poor and he wanted to devote himself to religion. This is a possible explanation to why he painted the church as the dominant building. In addition, the number of stars hanging in the sky is eleven, which probably is also because of his interest with religion. In order to give prominence to the position of the church, in his mind, he draws a straight standing church with clear lines. Thus, the tall spire of the church suggests that it should govern the whole town, which echoes with Van Gogh’s attitude towards the church and religion.
There is a huge structure to the left of the painting. Compared to the scale of other object at the far location of the painting, it is distinctly larger than them. That massive, dark object is a cypress tree. The cypress tree should be green, yet it becomes red- brown under the paintbrush of Van Gogh, which reflects the artist’s passion. The shape of the cypress tree is like a burning blaze, which mirrors the artist’s struggle in his inner-world. The cypress tree grows taller and taller; and, the highest point of the cypress tree nearly reaches the edge of the painting, and even out of it, which reflects the artist’s strong desire of escaping from the insanity and the asylum, resulting in his freedom. Some viewers think that the cypress tree symbolizes the death, but it is actually positive, possibly because death is an unfixed way for Van Gogh.
The primary tone of the painting is yellow, red, and blue. Different depths of colors show different feelings and perceptions. The bright yellow of moon and dark yellow of the stars symbolize hope, but they are surrounded by hazy apertures that are composed of crashed yellow or short, white lines, which represents Van Gogh’s longing for hope, and the obstacles that block his path to hope. The dark blue sky is suffused with mysterious breath and the idea of an unknown future. Van Gogh has no idea when the end of such a disordered and deviant life is. For the small town, besides black outline of objects, blue is the most prominent color. As a matter of fact, blue signifies melancholy. Van Gogh’s expression and mood is located at trough. His grief of the inner-world is outspokenly embodied in color elements of the painting. The red-brown cypress tree represents Van Gogh’s passion and struggle; the cypress tree almost reaches the top of edge, which illustrates that his success has presented itself to him, but he has failed to win the battle between sanity and the psychotic.
These kinds of line are applied in the painting are twisty long line and cracked short line. The mixture of different lines makes the frame reveal an amazing surreal scene. Nevertheless, such a scene does not happen in reality, but originates from Van Gogh’s imagination. According to the structure of the painting, the twisted and astir sky and stars and the erect and placid town form vivid contrast to one’s vision. In terms of the direction of the scenery, transverse sky and mountain and vertical cypress tree bring a balance to the visual aspects.
Focusing on each single element from the painting, each part appears to be rough and harsh, but when gathering all the imperfect lines, it unexpectedly becomes a world-famous opus. No one can imagine how a psychopath draws inspiration for such an outstanding piece. No one can understand the struggle a psychopath has in his inner-world. No one can experience the burden that a psychopath bears. Viewers only see the external honor of artist, but they don’t know the internal pain of the artist. In order to truly appreciate his work, viewers should learn more about his background.
Thank you, Van Gogh, for leaving such great work behind for the world. To sum up, the opus is famous for twisty, long lines and cracked short, lines unexpectedly generating a wonderful sight. It completely reflects Van Gogh’s darkness in his inner-world.