The Starry Night Painting By Vincent Van Gogh

Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh

When the name Vincent Van Gogh comes around the first painting people think about is The Starry Night. The reason is this painting was the peak of the artist’s achievements. Vincent Van Gogh to many surprise actually only sold one painting in his life time. However, after his death his work is widely sold as replicas today. The Starry Night painting is still one of the most well known images from modern culture since it is the most replicated and the most sought after for prints in a wide range of sizes.

So what makes the Starry Night such a timeless masterpiece? The fact that the night sky is filled with stars ablaze under their own bright light and how the clouds around these stars are swirling all over the top of the painting along with how bright the crescent shaped moon looks. All these elements are easy for people to relate to. Even young children can relate to how the sky looks in the painting. This kind of sky also keeps a person’s eyes moving all over the painting. Instead of just focusing on one part of the painting, a viewer can become involved in all parts of it.

The second part that makes the Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh so breathtaking is that fact that there is a small town right under the stars, clouds and crescent shaped moon. When you see a dark colored town under such a bright star lite night, your mind tends to relax and feel like you are right there in the painting looking out into that night sky. The painting can really give an adult a child like feeling and make them feel small and filled with imagination.

The third part that makes people stop and stare at this masterpiece is the tall church steeple over looking the town. If the person viewing this piece was religious they might assume that the church over looking the small town symbolized how God watches over all it’s people no matter the size. Either way anyone can see that the scale of the church steeple is larger than the rest of the painting and is an important element of the painting.

Many people assume that this painting was the only one that featured a starry night Van Gogh ever painted. However that assumption is untrue. Van Gogh made two other very popular paintings that showed off his love for a piece full night sky.

The first painting he created before Starry Night is called Starry Night Over The Rhone. This painting shares a lot of the same elements the younger painting does. These elements include how the stars in the sky make their own source of light. Van Gogh also added the unique element of a reflection of that artificial light. Because of that reflection, the viewer will move their eyes around the painting and look at the river completely. The last element that is very much like that younger painting Starry Night is that the structures in the background behind the river are lit up in a warm glow of light. It shows that there might be a town behind the river or something else.

However, Starry Night Over The Rhone does have one element that the Starry Night doesn’t feature.  That element is that there is a couple walking along side of the river. Because of the addition of humans inside this painting, the piece gives the viewers a more down to earth feeling and a very natural quality.

The other painting that Van Gogh created and featured a starry night sky is called Cafe Terrace At Night. This one was painted in Arles in the year 1888. The yellow wall of the cafe begs for the viewers attention instead of having the viewer look over every part of the masterpiece. This piece also is more down to earth since it does feature a large number of people and provides the viewer with a real life feeling to the painting. This painting may feature a starry night but it is not the focus like the two paintings mentioned above.

All three Van Gogh paintings that feature a starry night are considered the best works of Van Gogh. People enjoy viewing the originals and the replica paintings all over the world. These paintings have inspired many numbers of things and continue to inspire so much more.