Vincent Willem Van Gogh was born in 1853, in Netherlands. This Dutch painter was one of the post impressionists whose work influenced the current expressionism in modern art. If you do not know what expressionism is, it was a style that the artists used to convey their emotions by distorting the elements of the reality. It got popular in the 20th century in Northern Europe but it did exist before that. Vincent Van Gogh painting “The Starry Night” of the 1800s is an example of such kind of an art. His art became famous after his death, especially in the late 20th century.
In the painting “The Starry Night,” the elements appear to be from a distorted imagination. The yellow crescent moon, the stars as dense white and yellow orbs, the night sky and the mountains which looks like waves, makes the viewer feel like its something so surreal. In fact, the artist Vincent Van Gogh was said to be at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum while painting this picture. In a letter to his brother, he had mentioned that the night was more colourful that the day and the stars where yellow, pink, or green and not just white dots. The painting was also told to be inspired by the view from his window of the asylum and the interesting fact about it is that the village never existed in real life, it was just a part of his imagination.
Vincent Van Gogh passed away in the year 1890 in Auvers-sur-Oise, near Paris. The sad part of his death is that he had shot himself because he thought he would never get over his loneliness. But he did not die immediately, he was found in his bed, injured. Later when he was interrogated by the cops he said, “What I have done is nobody else’s business. I am free to do what I like with my own body.” Van Gogh died two days later. Theo, his brother, died 6 months later because he was heart-broken due Vincent’s death. In 1914, Theo’s remains were moved to his brother’s grave site, in a little cemetery in Auvers, and today the two brothers lie side by side, with identical tombstones.
∎
