Analyzing Vincent Van Gogh's Painting 'Starry Night'
Alex Montalbano
Vincent van Gogh
1
In the painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, you see two prominent swirls in the background in the sky. One swirl flows into the second, smaller swirl. Both light blue swirls are flowing to the right through a dark blue night sky. In the upper right hand corner is a yellow-orange crescent moon surrounded by a yellow glow. Also in the background are eleven variously sized yellow-orange stars scattered amongst the blue sky. At the bottom of the background, right above where the middle ground starts, is a strip of light yellow. The farthest point of the middle ground are mountains and trees that surround the quaint village. The dark mountains and blue-green forest seem to flow right into the village, showing no start or end to the two. Although …show more content…
The village and the forest are dense with activity creating lots of movement between the houses and amongst the foreground and middle ground. He uses a dark palette throughout his painting to give it an eerie, mysterious, dark mood. However, in the sky, the stars and moon have vibrant oranges and yellows that are used to express the movement that a fireball would create, keeping your eyes constantly at motion. The movement of the piece is constant because the brushstrokes are so erratic and vivacious that your eye can’t settle on one part. The cypress tree uses curvy and wavy lines that intertwine with each other and fold into one another. The swirls in the sky, although you would think the most logical line choice would be soft and smooth, Van Gogh uses abrupt streaks that provide more chaotic movement than soft lines would. The constant use of dark blues and greens makes the bright colors in the sky even more emphasized. Those bright colors offset the dark houses of the village, but unifies with the bright lights in the windows of the
Vincent van Gogh
1
In the painting Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh, you see two prominent swirls in the background in the sky. One swirl flows into the second, smaller swirl. Both light blue swirls are flowing to the right through a dark blue night sky. In the upper right hand corner is a yellow-orange crescent moon surrounded by a yellow glow. Also in the background are eleven variously sized yellow-orange stars scattered amongst the blue sky. At the bottom of the background, right above where the middle ground starts, is a strip of light yellow. The farthest point of the middle ground are mountains and trees that surround the quaint village. The dark mountains and blue-green forest seem to flow right into the village, showing no start or end to the two. Although …show more content…
The village and the forest are dense with activity creating lots of movement between the houses and amongst the foreground and middle ground. He uses a dark palette throughout his painting to give it an eerie, mysterious, dark mood. However, in the sky, the stars and moon have vibrant oranges and yellows that are used to express the movement that a fireball would create, keeping your eyes constantly at motion. The movement of the piece is constant because the brushstrokes are so erratic and vivacious that your eye can’t settle on one part. The cypress tree uses curvy and wavy lines that intertwine with each other and fold into one another. The swirls in the sky, although you would think the most logical line choice would be soft and smooth, Van Gogh uses abrupt streaks that provide more chaotic movement than soft lines would. The constant use of dark blues and greens makes the bright colors in the sky even more emphasized. Those bright colors offset the dark houses of the village, but unifies with the bright lights in the windows of the