Art Article #2

Art Article 2

            Starry Night is a painting by the Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh, and is one of his most well-known works. Painted in June 1889, Starry Night was inspired by the view outside of his sanitarium room window at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence (located in southern France). Unlike van Gogh’s earlier painting Starry Night Over the Rhone, which holds many similarities to Starry Night, the new night scene was painted in daylight, all from memory. The center part of the painting shows a quiet village by the mountains under a swirling star-filled sky. The village was partially invented and the church spire has been said to be a tribute to his home country, the Netherlands.  The cypress tree to the left was later added into the composition. Art historian Joachim Pissarro cites Starry Night as an example of van Gogh's fascination with the night. This painting has been in the permanent collection of the Manhattan Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941. Starry Night has been the subject of poetry, fiction, and the well known song "Starry, Starry Night" by Don McLean. Some people have speculated about the eleven stars in the painting and its possible connection to the story of Joseph in the Old Testament (Genesis 37:9). One of van Gogh’s other paintings, Sunset at Montmajour, has just recently been discovered after sitting in a Norwegian attic since the early 1900s; it is the first full-size work by van Gogh to be discovered since 1928.