Preview

Compare and Contrast Essay on Van Gogh

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
410 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare and Contrast Essay on Van Gogh
THE NIGHT CAFÉ
BY: VINCENT VAN GOGH

AS A POST-IMPRESSIONIST PAINTER, AND ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS ASTIST OF ALL TIME VINCENT VAN GOGH has became an icon. Between November 1881 and July 1890 he painted almost 900 paintings. The Night Café in the place Lamartine in Arles 1888 (fig 2-47). This piece was him telling the world that this place is where one “can ruin oneself”. He tried to express it as it being a place where the atmosphere was of loneliness. The striking, bold, intense colors, the empathic brushwork, and contoured forms of his work are highly expressive, even emotional. He used the symbolic and expressive values of colors to express/ The colors he used made it clash, red on the walls and green on the ceiling. Yet, the floor and the billard table contain the same two colors red, and green. Using those colors marries the two which makes it complete. The painting shows brilliance and agitation. He felt envy and anger while painting this piece according to the color as symbol theory. I myself liked how the optical lighting that was used to make the painting stand out like the light is real compared to the local light.

BEDROOM IN ARLES
BY: VINCENT VAN GOGH

The striking colors, unusual perspective and familiar subject matter create work that not only is among Van Gogh’s most popular but one of his personal favorites. He described this painting as great length in letters to his family. This painting is no less than 13 letters and as a result he gave simply his bedroom the simplification a grander style to things, it’s suggestive here of rest or of sleep in general, looking are the picture ought to rest the brain or rather the imagination. Walls are pale violet, floor is red tiles, the wood of the bed and chairs is yellow like butter, sheets and pillows very light greenish. The broad lines of furniture again must express inviolable rest. The pictures on walls and mirror, towels and cloths. The shadows and the cast shadows are suppressed

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When comparing the lines in the Vincent Van Gogh’s The Starry Night painting and Sol LeWitt’s the Wall Drawing No. 681, the lines are the opposite. In the Starry Night painting the lines of the sky are very curvy and flowing, but the lines of the buildings are very straight. The artist in this painting is showing you a vision he has had during the time he was in the asylum. The lines of the sky are erratic, and it shows how the artist was feeling very unstable during the time he painted the piece. You can feel how peaceful the buildings are, but the sky is not peaceful. The artist is fighting with himself, and it shows in the painting. The Wall Drawing No.681 shows very straight and precise lines. The artist is feeling very controlled as he painted the piece. The lines appear to be mathematical, each of the lines are the same in length and distance. As you look at each of the lines, the colors are used more than once, but the tense of the color has changed. The lines in the piece are very organized.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This painting was inspired by a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich Avenue where two streets meet, the painting depicts an all-night diner in which three customers, all lost in their own thoughts, have congregated. Hopper’s understanding of the expressive possibilities of light playing on simplified shapes gives the painting its beauty.…

    • 754 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rupert Bunny Essay

    • 596 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The use of colour, surface and composition all play an important part in conveying the restful and peaceful qualities of this painting. The painting consists almost solely of pale, neutral colours, which reflects the soothing quality of the two women sleeping. The use of the colour white also represents purity and goodness, representing the two upper-class women. Secondly, surface is also used to demonstrate the gentle vibe of the painting, with intricate detail used in detailing the luscious, soft fabric of the high class women. Every surface is portrayed as gentle, the tranquil lake, soft dresses and flowing fabric blankets – which all lend to the overarching theme of Endormies, meaning Sleeping in French. Lastly, the very neoclassical composition (one of the well-known compositions of neoclassic art was diagonal focus) helps represent the visual imagery in this picture. The eye is lead through two lines – the first made by the main subject (the sleeping woman in the…

    • 596 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Behaviors or actions such as walking, eating, dancing, yelling, texting, helping others and so on…

    • 2493 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Maestro Essay

    • 1138 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Likewise McLean has utilised particular metaphors to broaden reader’s minds upon the personal experiences of Vincent Van Gogh. The metaphor ‘Portraits hung in empty halls’ proves that Van Gogh’s paintings were unappreciated whilst he was alive. This metaphorical language therefore depicts an image of emptiness towards Van Gogh proving the defining statement that McLean comments on historical and emotional values through the use of imagery.…

    • 1138 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I have to say that the Night Café by Vincent van Gogh on page 17 is my favorite work so far. The contrast of warm and cool colors are amazing. They present the perfect equilibrium for this painting. They kind of put me in the mood to listen to some blues or jazz while gazing upon the painting. I can imagine a stage, at the bottom right of the painting, with a saxophonist playing. As I observe, I can’t help but notice the lone man next to the couple asleep and the two buddies on the far right side drunk. One might ask “ How do you know they are drunk?” Well, no one would fall asleep in a night café with a friend. The more believable scenario is that they were drinking and passed out. The artist’s play with colors along with his character seem to give this work it’s name. The way the lights seem animated and vibrating makes the café come alive for me. They create a warm feeling and yet the green ceiling cools everything down. Van Gogh’s Night Café looks like a place to just “chill”. After careful inspection it seems to have been created by someone from the outside looking in. Did you notice that the gentleman in the white is posing just for the viewer as if to say “Cheese!” There is great texture in this painting. The use of red, yellow and brown really made the floorboards look real. He uses all types of lines but mostly soft brush strokes to make everything recognizable yet just beyond absolute. It works for this art. It leaves things up to the viewer’s imagination; what kind of drinks are in the wine glasses, what nationality the people are, what they are really doing,…

    • 306 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wooden Board Critique

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The painting has been done on the wooden board. The artist has used oil paints as its medium. The painting, however does not include the whole wooden board. The subject is situated at the center of the board and the rest of the board is left blank. This is why the viewers have their focus at the center of the board. The very thing that attracts the viewers towards this painting is the color that has been used in the painting. The use of bright colors like white and blue makes it look vibrant and beautiful. The Artist has used blue as a main color, which is one thing that makes the painting more attractive. The painting consists of a human face. The artist has painted the face of a man which help explaining the motive of the painting. The face…

    • 460 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dorothea Tanning

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    From the muted, sickly green of the walls, to the stark contrast of the blood-red carpet, color plays an important role in setting the tone of this piece. Correspondingly, the colors used in the chief subjects of the painting (young girls, sunflower, carpet) are less organic than the hues used for the more subtle areas of the painting (walls, door, steps). The neutral tones of the background help to “corral” the viewer's eye into looking at the focal point and the action happening around it. In the same token, Tanning’s use of complementary colors allows the red carpet to seemingly “cut” through the painting, providing a perfect backdrop for the vibrancy of the yellow sunflower. The two girls are dressed in white, yet, the figure against the door frame carries semblances from the sunflower and the carpet, represented in her cardigan and the petal she holds. The two lost petals at the foot of the stairs become almost an afterthought when compared to the stark hue of the sunflower, as they are slightly more muted shade of yellow. Finally, the open door at the end of the hallway leaves the viewer with many unanswered questions. Upon first glance, the hazy warm tones may convey a sense of an emblazoned fire, but upon further inspection, it could simply be the light of a hotel lamp flooding the hallway. What is happening behind the door? Is this where the girls came from, and if so will they return? Tanning leaves all these questions up in the air with her use of ambiguity in the focus and color of the final…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Frida Kahlo Obstacles

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Here he found a house to rent which was known as “the Yellow House.” Van Gogh’s friend and brother were supposed to be coming to Arles to live and paint with him, which made him very happy. While living here he painted The Bedroom which described his actual room in his house. The Bedroom was painted in 1889 on a canvas using oil and is located at the Art Institute of Chicago. The Bedroom is a painting consisting of what seems to be a normal room.…

    • 726 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This paper is a formal analysis of the Basket of Apples, a still life oil painting made by Paul Cézanne in 1895. The painting is about 25.6 inches tall times 31.5 inches wide. This composition illustrates a geometric spatial organization on disjointed perspectives. Although the artwork is absent of any symbolic and mythological content, its essence is to illustrate harmony of its various elements over subject matters. The systematic representation of shapes and colors are highly characteristic and clearly recognizable in this art piece. Repetitive round and angular shapes are dominant forms apparent within the work. These simple geometric shapes support the composition of structural regularity in the subjects of the painting. Furthermore, the artist skillfully employs effects of light and shade to make a simple shape such as a circle to look like an apple. However, the light is not evenly distributed as the objects in the right portion of the painting appears to be more luminous than the objects on the left side. The color is another very important element in the painting. The way the tonal patterns are distributed create color harmony. The painting does not utilize a wide range of colors, instead, the overall color arrangement is confined to a few cool and warm tones. The cool tone of the pearl white cloth, the plate and the grey wall are made to draw a distinct attention from the warm autumn-like tone of the other objects on the table and the table itself. Furthermore, complementary colors are also used to create contrast. This is evident in the placement of green and red apples inside the basket. However, the color contrast and transition are cleverly accomplished in a subtle manner. This complements the dominating use of analogous colors, such as red and orange, to achieve overall color harmonies in the painting. It is also worth noting that the color becomes more intense as the objects becomes smaller. Dabbing of uneven colors and visible brushstrokes are…

    • 680 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Baltimore Art Museum

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The artist utilized oil and multiple layers of gesso on canvas to create his three dimensional piece of art. The Dancer At Pigalle’s represents a woman who dances in the spotlight on a stage. Her dress is spinning around in a circular flow. In this work, Servini is using a futurist style of painting. I have a feeling that I am inside the stage watching this woman performing ballet dancing. The canvas is developed with layers of plaster to be able to represent the dancer’s motion and dress by projecting them out into the viewer’s land. Light and environment act concurrently on the forms of movement. The work is a colorful representation of the body and the cloth of the woman as depicted. Her dress is pink and is printed with brown hearts. Her shoes are brown. She has black hair. While the painting does not reflect the real mood of the dancer, the bright colors and the gestures that the artist used on this painting reveals the happiness of this…

    • 1051 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Belonging essay

    • 1988 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The repetition of various faces that are scattered around the painting are similar in shape and color conveying belonging and normality which leads the viewer to question the placing of the dark character at the bottom of the painting. This highlights to us the separation of an individual from society.…

    • 1988 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pretty much as Vincent Van Gogh, I likewise thought amid his period that present-day life, with its steady social change and concentrate on advancement and achievement, estranged individuals from each other and from themselves. As we all know individuals experiencing an unbalance mental condition as Van Gogh did were not in contact with the truth. I think Van Gogh unbalance condition was overpowering while he searched for a puzzling impact to his depiction. Concerning myself, it is difficult to center when I drink alcohol so contrasting it with Van Gogh mental condition must had likewise been troublesome for him to center which is the reason he paint expressionism conceptual. The Starry Night, 1889, oil on canvas, 28 ¾ x 36 ¼", by Vincent…

    • 224 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Despite Van Gogh’s willingness to share his passion with society, “only those who wanted to mock him, encouraged him to talk.” However Mr Van Gogh is described as a man who bases his life around his morals and values. He is passionate and simply loves beauty and life. He spends all his money on his artwork such as buying different colors for his glass, especially yellow because Mr Van Gogh said it represents personal expression. To others in the community “he didn’t have anything worth stealing” Mr Van Gogh is somewhat eccentric and often shy or submissive around others in the community. The contrasting personalities help illustrate themes of small town mentalities and beauty of being on the inside. Mr Souness singles out Mr Van Gogh because he is different, this is a characteristic or trait often…

    • 924 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Owen Marshall’s ‘Mr Van Gogh’ addresses the inevitable issue of marginalisation of an individual. Through language features he influences the reader to reflect and consider action of the attitudes towards the socially marginalised. The social rejection of an individual is described through the voice of the town bully, and the cowardly acts of the narrator. Set in a small town in New Zealand it serves as a microcosm of contemporary society. Marshall presents a parable to educate the reader so they understand that there is only inclusion when there is exclusion. Marshall aims to influence the reader to take action and act in ways that challenge the universal social norms.…

    • 1098 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays

Related Topics