A Noite Estrelada: analysis and meaning of Van Gogh's painting

Or quadro A Noite Estrelada, by Vincent van Gogh, was painted in 1889.

It is an oil on canvas, 74 cm X 92 cm, in the Museum of Modern Art of New York (MoMA).

The painting portrays the landscape of the fourth artist in this hospice of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, being considered one of the most significant works of the Dutch artist.

Interpretation and context

Vincent van Gogh painted this canvas when he was not in the hospice of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, where he voluntarily interned in 1889. Van Gogh has a disturbed emotional life, suffering from depression and psychotic attacks.

During the time that he was hospitalized, he carried out various studies of non-hospital places, such as the corridor and the entrance. His knowledge of him was controlled, or that he deixou with limitations of subjects for painting.

No hospital, Van Gogh had access to two celas: one where he slept, and another where he could paint. A Noite Estrelada é a seen from the bedroom that he slept, just before the sun rises. Or a painter could not finish his paintings nesse quarto, especially tinha carvão e papel, which he used to make sketches and later finish the works.

Van Gogh was post-impressionist He was considered to be two pioneers of modern art. We can observe in his works a representation of the world, with strong brushstrokes, but rather nenhuma abstração.

Or quadro A Noite Estrelada It is considered one of the two most important of Van Gogh, because of some small abstractions, which will become essential material for modernism.

Take advantage also to read or artigo The fundamental works of Van Gogh and his biography.

Analysis: main elements of the work

This canvas is one of the most important ones by Van Gogh. Nela, or artist, transmits her agitated psychological state through the movement of brushstrokes and an unprecedented dynamism até então.

Or use das espirais

As you turn to the first thing that calls attention to this square. As quick brushstrokes in the hourly sense give a sensation of depth of movement year ceu.

These spirals are characteristic of Van Gogh's works from that period. With short movements of the brush or artist, he built a restless mind, revealing his own mental disturbances and drawing a portrait incommunicado from the sky.

To Vila

A small village represented in Van Gogh's painting is not part of the landscape seen by only fourth of it.

Some critics attest that he is a representation of the village to which the painter passed on to childhood. Others can prove that they go to vila de Saint-Rémy.

For all you effects, ao povoado é uma insertion feita pelo artist, sendo um imagined component that could have been included as a nostalgic lembrança of his childhood and youth in the Netherlands.

The points of light in the houses are related to the stars, not céu, raising um dialogue between humanity and greatness of the milky way.

Or cypress

Or cypress is a common element in Van Gogh's works. This tree is associated à morte in various European cultures. They were used in Egyptian sarcophagi and in our Roman caixões.

Or cypress became common to decorate cemeteries and which is always related to or ends in life.

For Van Gogh, cypresses are also interested in having a formal character, as well as a symbolic one. The painter would appreciate a lot of the uncommon forms that the cypress appears in his fluency.

The beautiful movements that this tree face are represented in this quadro, and can also be interpreted as enormous labaredas that dance like wind.

As you star

So you have two most important elements of the quadro. As well as its plastic beauty, they are representative for demonstrating a great abstraction.

At first, Van Gogh was not satisfied with cloth. For him, the stars were very big. He said that he left to carry peels abstractionist ideas year compor stars of great proportions.

Interpretation of the work

This work by Vicent van Gogh is a framework in the history of art. Its plastic beauty is noteworthy in the elements that I compõem show the work of a mature artist.

Many critics considered the canvas a frame in Van Gogh's career, the same as I did not appreciate the painter when it was small.

To painting is very expressive, to visão do turbulent night sky as you spire and mark and face contrast with calmaria da Pequenavila pouco abaixo das linhas two mountains.

A cypress that sovereign vertical takes in front of the square, as a prominent figure does not give me the landscape. Ao seu side, the tower da igreja is also held high, more in a way a little more timid. Both projetam uma ligação between a terra e o céu. Esses são os dois elements verticais nessa painting by Van Gogh.

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Art-educator, visual artist and photographer. Graduated in Art Education from the Paulista State University (Unesp) and trained in Photography from the Pan-American School of Art and Design.